


Obliviate-me-not

by TheTheoryOfDreaming



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Awkward Flirting, Description of a wound, Grief/Mourning, Harry Potter himself makes an appearance, In a way, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, St. Mungo's, Stitches, Surgery, curse wounds, healer!Seonghwa, injuries are mentioned, muggle!Hongjoong, no beta we die like men, offscreen minor character death, they're in a hospital, weird medical details
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28675137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTheoryOfDreaming/pseuds/TheTheoryOfDreaming
Summary: “Are you sure?”“Yeah, I am, the Ministry announced they would bring him here.”“Here? I can’t believe that!”“I know, right? When was the last time that happened anyway?”“Huh, good question. Over a decade ago probably?”“Must be… we haven’t treated a muggle here during my whole career as a healer.”
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 27
Kudos: 53





	1. Chapter 1

#

Seonghwa never listened to his coworkers gossiping which usually meant less stress and that day way no exception. He simply went about his day as head healer in the Artifact Incidents ward. This was the reason why he didn’t know he’d be treating a muggle until said muggle arrived in his ward accompanied by no less than five aurors. One of them was holding the unconscious redhead afloat with his wand while the others stood guard. At first Seonghwa thought the guy was a criminal.

“Auror Choi! What is going on? Who is this person?”

“Good morning, healer Park. This is a muggle who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Last night a wand blew up a few blocks from here and the muggle was unfortunately too close.”

Seonghwa felt his blood rushing from his face. “A blown-up wand?” He conjured a stretcher and helped the aurors arrange the unconscious man’s limbs on it. “Where’s the wizard?”

“Nothing left of ‘em.” San shrugged. “We couldn’t even scratch burned goo off the walls because there were no walls left.”

That was… stop it right there, he could mourn a lost life later. Right now he had to save one. 

"Do you know what spell they used? Or tried to use?" Seonghwa scanned the man with his wand. 

"We're not sure yet but it seems to have been something dark." 

Seonghwa cursed internally, starting to push the hovering stretcher over to an examination room. 

"So he's a muggle." 

"Yes." 

"Do we have a name or is this a John Doe?" 

"No, he had his wallet, wait, where is it?" San patted his pockets aimlessly until Yeosang appeared by his side, soundless as always, and handed over a brown leather wallet. Seonghwa was already pulling the man's eyelids up and saw with concern that the man's pupils weren't the same size. 

"Thanks, Yeosang. So his name is….. Hongjoong Kim." 

"Hongjoong Kim…", Seonghwa mumbled as he timed his patient's breaths. At least he was breathing AND his breath was even. Hongjoong Kim was a name he would be able to remember easily, there weren't many Koreans (or at least people with Korean names) in England, apart from his little friend group with San, Yeosang and Wooyoung, journalist for the _Daily Prophet_ , he had never met any. But then again he didn't leave his flat for anything other than work, maybe that was the reason. 

Those thoughts were at the back of his consciousness, he was mostly focused on Hongjoong Kim. His heartbeat was as strong and steady as his breath, concerning was only the difference in pupil sizes and the fact that the man was still unconscious. 

"Are you keeping him under a spell?" 

San shook his head. "We found him like this, he never regained consciousness to our knowledge." 

"Hm." Seonghwa widened his examination now that he was sure that Hongjoong Kim wouldn't die in the next five minutes and turned to the wounds trickling blood onto the stretcher. 

Hongjoong Kim's leg looked like he'd been mauled by a werewolf with weird sparks dancing over the exposed flesh, the majority of his clothing torn to shreds and his shoulder seemed oddly shaped. Definitely dislocated, most likely broken. 

"Drake, please grab me a blood replenishing potion from the second cabinet from the left, would you?" Seonghwa palpitated the shoulder. Yes, broken, but easy to mend. He wouldn't even need Skele-gro for that. 

Drake appeared at Seonghwa's side with the phial of potion in hand. "Here, healer Park." 

"Thank you." Seonghwa wrenched the cork out of the phial and trickled the potion in Hongjoong Kim's mouth that stood conveniently open. He actually didn't know what a potion would do to muggle physiology, especially since muggles didn't have a magical core for the potion to interact with, but nothing in blood replenishing potion was in any way poisonous so he felt safe in trying. 

While he waited for the effects of the potion he wrapped Hongjoong Kim's leg in bandages to staunch the blood flow, wearing dragon skin gloves and carefully avoiding the sparks. Who knew what those were.

"For the way his leg looks he's bleeding surprisingly little," he commented off-handedly. 

"Ummm," San squirmed, "he might have been injured quite a while ago because we had to keep him in our office for a few hours?" 

"He what?" And for the first time since his arrival in Seonghwa's ward Seonghwa looked up from his patient. "What did you just say?" 

San at least had the decency to look sheepish. "It was so difficult to get the papers, hyung, you know how bureaucracy works. It’s not that easy to get the permission to bring a muggle into a part of wizarding London, it took ages to fill out the papers." 

Seonghwa glared at San for letting a patient bleed for hours before getting him any medical attention. “Like… did you lay him on your desk?”

“Well… kind of?” San pulled his head between his shoulders and ducked under Seonghwa’s glare. “I’m sorry! I know I fucked up!”

“That’s putting it mildly! No wonder it took you so long to fill out these papers if your desk was occupied.” Seonghwa continued to grumble under his breath, something about “irresponsible” and “utterly useless” and the aurors felt it was safer to retreat and leave the healer to do his job. They had a crime scene to investigate after all.

Hongjoong Kim was probably the most difficult patient to treat in Seonghwa’s entire career so far. 

Seonghwa tried to clean the wound with a spell but the only thing he accomplished was a spark springing from his patient’s leg and burning a hole in his healer’s robes. That was not what he had been expecting. 

“What the hell?” A healing spell had similar results and Seonghwa was only able to save himself from burns with a quick shield charm. That was highly unusual. Was it the curse wound or the fact that his patient was a muggle? Seonghwa pondered for a moment before pointing his wand at a strand of Hongjoong Kim’s hair and trying to levitate it. Nothing happened at first and Seonghwa was already wondering how spells worked on other muggles but not this one when the strand of hair shakily rose from the stretcher. Another spark sprang from Hongjoong Kim’s leg. So it was probably the curse.

Since Seonghwa didn’t feel like setting his ward on fire with random sparks he chose to refrain from using spells, at least for now.

When he checked on the progress of the blood replenishing potion he noticed that nothing had happened but he had honestly been expecting that. Potions worked because they influenced a being’s magical core and since Hongjoong Kim didn’t have one it was not difficult to guess that potions would do nothing. Of course Seonghwa couldn’t be entirely certain but many potions had ingredients that could be poisonous and he didn’t want to risk it.

But that left him with one question, how would he treat his patient, and only one possible answer. With muggle medicine. He quickly thought about transferring the muggle to a muggle hospital but with his short experience with that curse wound it sounded like a terrible idea. Magical injuries should be treated in a magical hospital, even if it had to be with muggle methods.

Right after his shift Seonghwa made his way to the closest muggle library and checked out as many books on traumatology as he could. A cute red-headed librarian had helped him to find them all, he hadn’t even known what traumatology meant but after her explanation figured that that was probably the right field. He didn’t sleep that night and instead read as much as he could. It was fascinating how inventive muggles got! They screwed metal bits to broken bones to hold them together and the way they sewed wounds together was nothing short of breath-takingly captivating. In fact, Seonghwa was so engrossed in his books that he ended up learning far more about muggle healing methods than he would need to treat Hongjoong Kim.

Following the instructions in his books he used a metal plate to keep the pieces of Hongjoong Kim’s broken shoulder together so it could heal properly (he planned on simply vanishing it once the bone was healed), carefully stitched up the tattered leg (it was the first time that he was glad that his mother had insisted on him learning how to sew without magic) and kept the wounds clean with alcohol. He even learned how to lay and care for IV lines. It was nerve-wracking, every single thing that he did, but with the help of the magic that _did_ work, and the very detailed books he managed. After, he was completely knackered with a sleepless night and hours of surgery, but he was proud and held onto the hope that Hongjoong Kim would live.

His co-workers found the dedication with which he switched the bandages twice a day weird but Seonghwa didn’t care. His ward, his patient, his treatment.

What worried him was Hongjoong Kim’s persisting unconsciousness. He hadn’t woken up once since he had arrived in his ward and according to San not since the wand blew up.

All spells Seonghwa tried were dangerous to him and his ward at most, the muggle methods didn’t do anything either.

That’s why he was quite surprised that when he was changing the bandages on a rainy afternoon Hongjoong Kim’s eyelids fluttered and he slowly opened his eyes with a groan.

Seonghwa let bandages be bandages and checked Hongjoong Kim’s pupils. They were the same size, as they had been the past few days.

“Mr Kim. Mr Kim, can you hear me?”

Hongjoong Kim blinked multiple times in a row, trying to focus his eyes on Seonghwa. “Wha-?”

His voice was rough from disuse and a probably parched throat but Seonghwa wanted to wait with water until he was a bit more awake, just so he didn’t choke.

“Mr Kim, can you hear me?”, Seonghwa repeated a bit louder.

“Hm hm.” Hongjoong Kim’s eyes focused on Seonghwa and he already looked considerably more awake.

“Can you see me?”

“Yeah,” Hongjoong Kim whispered. “What happened?”

“You were caught up in an accident, Mr Kim.” Seonghwa schooled his face into an expression of appropriate concern. “Your shoulder is broken and your leg is injured as well. Both are treated but will take a while to heal.”

“Huh.” Hongjoong Kim shifted and immediately winced. His tiny “Ouch.” was strangely adorable.

“How do you feel, Mr Kim?” Seonghwa relaxed a bit as it looked like his patient was awake for good and wouldn’t fall back into a coma again. He pulled his wand and scanned, careful to avoid the sparking leg.

“Apart from like being run over by a bus? Just a bit dizzy, I guess. What’s that stick? Haven’t seen one of those before.”

“Oh.” Seonghwa had quickly forgotten about that. “Uhm, it’s my wand?”

“An ultrasound wand? But don’t those look different?”

“N-no. It’s my…” How should he word it? “My magical wand.”

Hongjoong Kim frowned. “Your what? Your vibrator? I mean, I’m always down for a casual hook-up but please not while I feel like death warmed over.”

“My what now? No, I mean my magical wand. I’m a wizard, Mr Kim. The accident you were injured in was a magical one, that’s why you’re being treated here and not in a muggle hospital.”

“Wizard? Muggle?” Hongjoong Kim groaned. “I’m too dizzy for this conversation.”

Seonghwa nodded. “No problem, we can do that later, Mr Kim. Do you want to drink some water? You seem to be awake enough, your reflexes should be functioning by now.”

“Oh yes, please.”

“As you wish. _Accio_ water bottle.”

He stretched out his hand to catch the bottle while looking over Hongjoong Kim’s sparking leg. It sailed smoothly into his palm and he twisted the cap off before handing it over and busying himself with the bandages again.

“What’s your name?”

Seonghwa startled. He hadn’t expected a conversation, in fact Hongjoong Kim was staying conscious for rather long. In Seonghwa’s experience patients often fell asleep quickly after waking from a coma.

“Healer Seonghwa Park.”

“Nice to meet you, Seonghwa Park. I’m Hongjoong Kim, but you seem to already know that.” Seonghwa looked up from the bandages and into the bright grin on Hongjoong Kim’s face. “Please call me Hongjoong, I always feel so old when someone calls me Mr Kim.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Addressing his patients with Mr and Mrs was a habit and habits are difficult to break.

“I’m sure you’ll do splendidly.”

Seonghwa nodded curtly and finally secured the end of the bandage. The water bottle was empty.

Hongjoong handed it back with the words “Thanks, doc. I already feel a lot better.” Then he fell asleep and didn’t even twitch when Seonghwa checked his broken shoulder.

The next day he was already awake when Seonghwa came in for his shift, sitting upright in bed and politely conversing with Alfred who had had the night shift.

“Good morning,” Seonghwa greeted them both but his eyes were on Hongjoong, assessing everything he could see. His skin was still decidedly pale even though it wasn’t as ashen as it had been the day before and sweat beaded along his hairline. From how he held his arm Seonghwa concluded that he was in pain from his shoulder. It made sense, Seonghwa had performed actual muggle surgery on it and wasn’t sure how to dose muggle pain killers.

Alfred quickly rattled through everything notable that had happened while Seonghwa was gone and then took his leave.

“Would you prefer to lie down, Hongjoong? I believe you would be more comfortable and your shoulder would hurt less.”

Hongjoong shook his head vigorously and jerked when the movement jostled his shoulder. “No, I can’t _see_ anything when I lie down and it’s boring as fuck. But I guess I’d appreciate it if you had some pills for me.”

“Be right back.” Seonghwa zoomed into his office. He had muggle pills, he just didn’t know how to use them. Hongjoong was a muggle, he should have enough experience with them to determine what he could take. Hopefully he didn’t have some kind of junkie in his ward.

“Here.” He dumped a bunch of packages into Hongjoong’s lap. “I have no clue how these work, we normally use potions but they have no effect on you.”

“Yeah, Alfred told me that already… Jesus Christ.” Hongjoong gingerly picked up one of the packages and handed it back to Seonghwa. “I won’t need this one, it’s not that bad.” Okay, maybe not a junkie.

He carefully selected two of the boxes and pulled out little bits of paper that he unfolded and read. “Yeah, those will do.” He attempted to fold the paper bits again but didn’t get them to be as compact as they had been. “These inserts tell you everything you need to know. Apart from how you fold them back together.” Eventually he gave up and just stuffed them back into the packaging before taking out the pills and swallowing them down with water.

“Better?”, Seonghwa asked, eager to learn more.

Hongjoong grimaced. “Relax, they’re not that fast. And it would actually be better to take them with a meal so they don’t burn a hole into my stomach but I guess for once it’s fine.”

“Oh, are they like Acid Pops?”

“What are Acid Pops?”

“Lollipops that are so sour that they burn a hole through your tongue.”

“Why would you…. never mind. You’re wizards, you do all sorts of crazy shit. No, I don’t actually know how this works but it’s what my mum always told me and… I just go with it.”

“Aha. Okay.” Seonghwa stored that information away for later, slipped on his gloves and got to work on Hongjoong’s bandages, since he was already here.

“So when can I leave, doc?”

Seonghwa bit his lip. That was the interesting bit. “I… I don’t actually know. You were injured by a blown-up wand and the after-effects are still there. I’m afraid you’ll have to stay until they’re gone but I don’t know when that will be.” Small magical charges sizzled over the marred skin of Hongjoong’s leg whenever Seonghwa came too close.

Hongjoong frowned. “Can I contact my friends then? They’ll worry. Well, they’re probably already worried, Alfred told me that I’ve been here close to two weeks.”

Seonghwa stopped and pondered for a moment. He normally didn’t have this problem, his usual patients’ friends and family could visit without a problem but since Hongjoong’s friends were probably muggles that wasn’t an option. “Maybe… maybe you could write them a letter?” He continued wrapping.

“Or I could call them?” Hongjoong looked at Seonghwa as if the healer was too dense to see the obvious solution to the problem.

“Well, if you have one of those pheletone thingies you could try but I don’t think it’ll work. St. Mungo’s isn’t as bad as Hogwarts where muggle eclectronics go haywire but there’s still a lot of magic in the air.”

“Do you mean telephone and electronics? What’s Hogwarts?” Hongjoong tilted his head. The medicine seemed to be kicking in because his pose was more relaxed and he just winced very slightly when he shifted his shoulder.

“Yeah, probably, Muggle Studies really wasn’t my strongest subject. Hogwarts is our Wizarding School here in Great Britain.” Seonghwa didn’t feel bad about telling Hongjoong anything because he knew that the muggle would be Obliviated as soon as he stepped foot out of the hospital. “Alright, I have other patients to tend to but I’ll be back with a quill and some parchment so you can write a letter.” He secured the end of the bandage.

As he was leaving he heard Hongjoong mutter “Quill and parchment? Are we in the Middle Ages?” and smiled. Yes, that was something Wooyoung constantly raved about, saying that Wizardkind should let the old-fashioned stationary be and switch to more modern alternatives. But to be frank, Seonghwa quite enjoyed the feeling of a feather quill scratching over parchment and the aesthetic.

It was a busy day as usual. Seonghwa visited patients and cast spells and handed out potions. 

Mrs Pitternick’s fingers still stubbornly refused to return to their normal size but at least they had stopped shrinking. Her three-year-old grandson had somehow gotten his hands on her wand and cast a jinx that they didn’t understand.

The usual parade of broom crashes came in and left pretty quickly, fully treated.

A young witch called Maggie Shacklewood was brought by her colleagues because their potions lab had blown up and she had been doused in several half-finished potions. Seonghwa cleaned all residue off her skin with a spell, dripped some detox-potion down her throat and left her to sleep off the effects so he could ask her about what exactly happened later.

Elderly Mr Epson was a regular in Seonghwa’s ward, he had dementia and often tinkered with his son-in-law’s spell lab. Mr Epson’s daughter had long given up on hysteria and was completely calm every time she had to bring her father in. This time it was an oddly shaped burn on his left hand and the only reason why she didn’t treat it herself was because she didn’t know what caused it.

After having dismissed a middle-aged man who _thought_ he was injured when he wasn’t Seonghwa set up the daily batch of potions to let them brew and returned to Hongjoong, his most curious patient.

“There you go.” He dropped the roll of parchment and the quill on the bedside table and set the glass inkwell down more carefully.

Hongjoong, who had been reading a copy of yesterday’s _Daily Prophet_ , looked up and smiled at Seonghwa. “Ah, you’re back. I thought you had forgotten about me.”

“I could never forget about you.” He had never treated a muggle before, of course Hongjoong would stay in his memory. When Seonghwa realized that what he had just said was _very_ open to misinterpretation he bit his tongue.

Hongjoong searched his face for a second before bursting into laughter. “My sleeping self must have left a big impression on you then.”

“No, that’s not what I meant…” Seonghwa trailed off and flushed a deep red.

“Don’t worry, buddy, I’m just messing with you.” Hongjoong stopped laughing but the mirth remained in his eyes. Seonghwa cleared his throat and Hongjoong changed the topic. “This paper is really interesting, I must say. Normally I find the news boring but I guess magic makes everything more exciting. I’ve been watching this _Nimbus_ advertisement for half an hour, I swear. See the moving broomstick?”

Seonghwa quickly glanced at the open page and saw the tiny drawn broomstick zip around the entire page. “Yeah. Uhm, have you thought about what you want to write?”

“That depends on your answers to a few questions I have.” Hongjoong folded the paper up again and tucked it under his pillow. “Can my friends visit me?”

“No.” Seonghwa’s answer came quickly and definitively and Hongjoong didn’t question it.

“Okay. And I probably can’t tell them about magic, right?”

“Exactly.” Seonghwa nodded, glad that their conversation had returned to familiar territory.

“Okay, cool, then I’ll have to come up with something. Can you somehow get a postcard from, I don’t know, Norway? Then I can pretend to have gone on an impromptu holiday to detox or something.”

“Norway?” Seonghwa raised an eyebrow. “Not… whatever, maybe Bali?”

Hongjoong shrugged. “I’m in a hospital. I won’t be tan by the time I get out.”

“Good point.” Seonghwa transfigured the roll of parchment into a postcard that read “Greetings from Norway!” and had some indistinct landscape in the background.

Hongjoong watched with an open mouth. “How did you… nevermind, magic, of course. I’ll never get used to this.” He grabbed the postcard and flipped it over in his hand to look it over but it seemed to withstand his examination. “This is amazing, thank you. But please, do you have just a normal pen for me? Writing with a quill will be a nightmare first and not authentic second.”

“Oh yeah, of course.” Thank Merlin that Wooyoung had shown Seonghwa what a muggle pen looked like so Seonghwa knew what he was doing as he transfigured the quill.

Hongjoong smiled brightly. “Thanks, buddy.” He began to write. Seonghwa read “Dear Yunho, dear Mingi, dear Jongho,” and politely averted his eyes, peeking under the bandage around Hongjoong’s leg instead. It didn’t look any better or worse than it had the day before.

“Okay. So… is there a postbox somewhere here?”

“A… a postbox?” Seonghwa vaguely remembered what that was.

“Yeah, a postbox, so the post will pick it up and deliver it. Oh, and we need a post stamp.”

Damn it. “Muggle Studies really wasn’t my best subject so I have no idea what you’re talking about but my friend Wooyoung will know, I think. I’m going to see him tonight, so I could ask him about it?”

Hongjoong’s eyes widened. “You would do that for me? I.. thank you, Seonghwa. Thank you very much.” Ah, it was nice to hear his name pronounced correctly. Seonghwa wondered if Hongjoong actually knew Korean.

“No problem.” Seonghwa took the card handed to him and tucked it into his robe.

“Can I keep the pen? I’d love to try the crossword, even though I’ll be terrible at it because I don’t know any magic.”

“Sure. I’ll look at your shoulder now, okay? Tell me if I’m hurting you.”

“Okay.” Hongjoong relaxed his entire side and helped Seonghwa to pull his shirt off. Seonghwa had looked at Hongjoong’s shoulder so many times since the muggle had arrived but when he was awake it was different. He flinched slightly when Seonghwa’s cold fingers slid over his skin, checking for swelling that the muggle books told him to pay attention to because it could be a sign that Hongjoong’s body rejected the metal plate Seonghwa had used to stabilize the shoulder blade. Since Hongjoong was so thin Seonghwa could feel the edge of the plate but fortunately there was no swelling. He peeled the gauze over the surgery wound back and revealed a Y-shaped cut, like the book had advised to do it, sealed by neat stitches.

“We can probably remove the threads in a few days. The wound looks good.”

“Threads? Did you perform surgery on me?”

“I had to. The magical methods didn’t work on you so I had to learn muggle medicine. We’re lucky that you were unconscious because I’m completely clueless when it comes to medication.”

“You… performed surgery. Which you don’t normally do.”

“Yes!” Seonghwa beamed. “Muggle medicine is fascinating!”

“You just cut me open with zero experience?”

“Uhm.” Seonghwa froze. He had not thought about it like that. “Yes?”

“Fucking shit.” Hongjoong buried his face in his hands.

“But… but I followed the books to a T, kept the wounds clean and looked after them well. The plate is firmly in place, the wound is healing well and the sutures are holding up perfectly. I even got muggle equipment for it!”

“Why didn’t you just bring me to a normal hospital? They have experience and actually know what they’re doing.”

“Because your leg sparked so much that it almost burned me. Someone tried to do some really dark magic, their wand blew up and you were too close. Some of that magic is clinging to you and I can’t let you go back into the muggle world until that wears off because there’s no knowing what might happen. I’m sorry that I’m not the perfect healer for this but I did what I could. My colleagues think I’m crazy for learning muggle medicine.”

Hongjoong looked up, his expression soft and open. “Oh. I… I didn’t know it was that bad. I’m sorry, Seonghwa.”

“I’m sorry, Hongjoong, for not telling you earlier. I should have.” Seonghwa rested his hand on Hongjoong’s good shoulder for a split second as reassurance before pulling it away to apply new bandages.

“Thank you for treating me the non-magical way. That must be difficult for you and I appreciate that you went out of your way to learn it.”

“No problem, Hongjoong. It was actually very fascinating! Did you know that…'' Seonghwa went on a rant about different threads that were used for wound sutures and how some of them dissolved and some of them didn’t and how carefully he had chosen the ones he used on Hongjoong. Hongjoong listened with a soft smile that didn’t budge when Seonghwa moved on to his leg. When Seonghwa was finished he looked up and giddily smiled back, still excited about sutures.

“Why is such a bright, beautiful man hiding in a hospital?”

Seonghwa’s smile slipped off his face.

“Ignore me!” Hongjoong flushed deeply. “I’m high on pain meds, I don’t know what I’m saying, just ignore me.”

What was he supposed to say? Oh Merlin, what was he supposed to _say_? “Thank you. Uhm. For the compliment.” Seonghwa’s ears burned but he tried to hold up his calm facade.

“You’re welcome?” Hongjoong’s smile could only be called careful but it became surer when Seonghwa tentatively smiled back. “Sorry for slipping up. Won’t happen again.”

“Seonghwa! There you are, your shift is over, why are you still here?” Melody’s strong hand clamped down on Seonghwa’s shoulder and crumpled up the weird atmosphere like parchment.

“Hello, Melody.” Seonghwa turned around and greeted the other healer.

“Hello, hello, you’re free as long as you tell me what I need to know!” Melody was easy like that.

“The potions need their usual midnight stirring. Mrs Pitternicks fingers have stopped shrinking but they’re still not back to normal size. We have a new patient, Ms Shacklewood, who should wake up soon. We don’t know exactly what happened because she’s been unconscious but I gave her detox potions. Mr Epson was here again, he had burned his hand. The usual broom crashes but they’re already gone. And Hong- Mr Kim here, his wounds look good and there’s pretty much nothing we can do other than wait for everything to heal, his leg only sparks a little bit now. I gave him free reign over his pain medication because I have no clue how these work and he seems to know what he’s doing. It’s also in his charts if you need something to refer to.”

“I damn well do,” Hongjoong added his two cents.

Melody laughed. “Alright, I’ve got this under control then. Knocking-off time for you, enjoy it while it lasts.”

Seonghwa laughed, shook his head and waved at Hongjoong. “See you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be here.” Hongjoong grinned and returned the wave.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now... it's a hospital. There's a death being discussed, not graphic and a character so minor that we know NOTHING about them. But just a heads-up for the people who may want to be warned or even completely skip. It starts with "When Seonghwa returned to Hongjoong" so if you want to skip just comment and I'll give you a brief summary

#

Stepping out of St. Mungo’s into muggle London was always like stepping into another dimension. Gone were the strange sounds patients sometimes made and the different smells, the healers and the slight tingle of magic in the air. Instead he was surrounded by traffic, busy people on their way home from work and the occasional whiff of cigarette smoke.

Seonghwa stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat, his healer robes carefully tucked into his backpack. Of course he could simply apparate home or use the floo network but he preferred to take the muggle underground. It was strangely grounding and it forced him to take some time to just sit and either read or stare into nothing. That day he tried to focus on his book, one on blood pressure and what it meant, but his mind kept drifting. He had come from a wizarding family and never really known a muggle. Of course he saw them on the train or in restaurants or on the streets and he also talked to some but still they had seemed to be a part of a huge gray mass to him. Academically he knew that they all had their own personalities, lead their own lives, were unique, but he had never … noticed that. Until this day, when Hongjoong woke up. Hongjoong was bubbly and bright, the way he dealt with magic was incredibly endearing but he also stood up for himself. He was smart and confident and he had called Seonghwa  _ beautiful _ . Seonghwa didn’t know what to make of that.

He almost missed his stop pondering about the mirth that had entered Hongjoong’s eyes at some point and whether it was there when he complimented Seonghwa. Seonghwa just about got out before the doors closed and hurried home. He wanted to freshen up and wash the remnants of potions from his hands before he met his friends in their usual pub.

San and Wooyoung were loud as always. Seonghwa was convinced that they weren't physically able to keep their laughter down. Yeosang sat across from them, watching them with an amused expression. He always seemed older than he was while Wooyoung especially apparently always tried to act as young as he possibly could. 

"Hello there." Seonghwa slid on the seat next to Yeosang. 

"Hyung! Finally, we're starving." Wooyoung winked. "But we've already ordered. By now we all have our regular." 

"Seonghwa-hyung, how is the muggle patient doing, is he okay?" San bit his lip, a guilty expression on his face. "I still feel bad about not bringing him in earlier but I really couldn't, I'm sorry…" 

Seonghwa lifted a hand to cut San short. "He's fine, he woke up and he's healing."

"A muggle patient?" Wooyoung curiously looked back and forth as if watching a tennis match. 

“Yeah, we brought him to hyung because a wand blew up in a basement right as the muggle walked past it,” Yeosang explained.

“Oh wow. How is it to treat a muggle?”

“It’s… obviously very different. Magic doesn’t work because the spell from the accident is lingering and rejects every spell and I try. Potions don’t do anything either but I think that’s because he’s a muggle. I had to learn muggle medicine and it’s actually very interesting, did you know that…”

“Wait, hyung, wait.” San held up both hands. “You learned muggle medicine to treat him?”

“Well…. yes?” Seonghwa shrugged. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to help him. Now of course I don’t know everything and still have a lot to learn but I was able to set his shoulder and stitch him up.”

“Stitch him…. up?” San looked confused and mildly terrified.

“Yeah, muggles sew the edges of wounds together so they will heal! Isn’t that fascinating?”

“Hyung, that sounds cruel and makes me feel sick so can we please talk about something else?”

Seonghwa deflated. “Okay. Uhm. Oh yeah, before I forget! Wooyoung, can you help me with this? Hongjoong wanted to send it to his friends so they don’t worry about him too much. It needs to look authentic and he talked about stamps?”

“Oh yes, I can do that!” Wooyoung’s face lit up. He had grown up with a wizarding family like Seonghwa and San after his muggle mother left, but Muggle Studies had always been his best and favourite subject, being basically attached to the hip of muggle-born Yeosang all through Hogwarts had also helped his knowledge. “Lemme see.”

Seonghwa handed the card over and watched as Wooyoung examined it closely and then discreetly tapped it with his wand a couple of times, muttering under his breath.

“There you go!” Wooyoung handed it back, it now had two colourful little squares in the corner that had previously been empty, covered by official looking seals stamped on with ink. “Let Mars deliver it and it should be fine.”

“Thanks Wooyoung-ah.” Seonghwa pocketed the postcard again.

“It’s very nice of you to do this, you know, hyung?” San casually swirled his drink around.

“It makes him feel better which in turn helps his healing progress.” Seonghwa shrugged. “Wouldn’t everyone try to help?”

“If you put it that way…” Yeosang pondered as he slowly tilted his head from side to side.

But of course Seonghwa didn’t get away that easily from San and Wooyoung. “Or maybe you like him, hyung.” They dissolved into a fit of giggles.

“Yeah, very funny.” Seonghwa rolled his eyes and thanked the server who brought their food. As soon as she was gone he continued. “I don’t know where you take your delusions from but I’m not just going to fall for every guy I meet. Sometimes I regret telling you that I’m gay.”

“Come on, hyung. Is he at least cute?”

Seonghwa thought about that for a second. Was Hongjoong cute? Well, he was certainly attractive, Seonghwa had eyes, but a lot of people were attractive, that didn’t have to mean anything. But yes, Hongjoong was cute.

“Alright.” Seonghwa sighed. “He’s cute I guess. But don’t get ahead of yourselves, even if I was attracted to him he’s still going to be Obliviated as soon as he leaves so it wouldn’t matter anyway.”

San pouted. “Ah, hyung, you’re no fun.”

“Hey, by the way!” Yeosang snapped his fingers as he seemed to remember something. “We’re making progress on finding out what spell that was but I’d need to see him again. Can I swing by tomorrow?”

“Sure. Come by around my lunch break and we can eat together?”

“Sounds good.”

Fortunately they dropped the topic of Hongjoong after that.

* * *

The next morning Seonghwa arrived at the hospital, changed into his lime green robes and took over from a very tired looking Melody. He did his usual rounds, filled finished potions into vials and, of course, visited Hongjoong.

“Good morning, Seonghwa!” Hongjoong beamed at him.

“Good morning. How are you feeling today?” Seonghwa began to unwrap the bandages around Hongjoong’s leg with deft, gloved fingers.

“Pretty good, pretty good. Just bored. Could I maybe… walk around a little today? I’m barely in pain anymore, the medication helps a lot.”

Seonghwa pulled the last bandage away from Hongjoong’s leg, cocked an eyebrow and asked “Does your leg look like you can walk?”

Hongjoong looked at his leg closely where black stitches barely stood out against dry dark red scabs, little sparks dancing over skin and exposed flesh. “On second thought… how about crutches?”

“With your shoulder?”

“Oh, okay. Maybe that wasn’t my best idea.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Seonghwa chuckled. “Let’s leave your leg unwrapped for now to let it air out so it stays dry. My friend Yeosang will come by later to get a look at it because they’re still trying to figure out what spell it was.”

Hongjoong hummed noncommittally, his eyes trained on Seonghwa’s fingers that rolled the bandage up.

“Please don’t cover that with your blanket, leave it out. When it gets too cold, call me and we’ll wrap it again, okay?”

“Yeah.” Hongjoong sounded slightly breathless and Seonghwa frowned.

“Are you okay?”

“Hm?” Hongjoong snapped out of his daze. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Okay then. Let’s look at your shoulder, shall we?”

Hongjoong nodded. He didn’t need help to get out of his shirt that day.

“Sorry, my hands are cold,” Seonghwa warned before touching Hongjoong’s warm back. Hongjoong flinched but didn’t say anything. 

“By the way, the postcard should have arrived already. I sent Mars to deliver it yesterday.”

“Mars?”

Seonghwa checked for signs of inflammation as usual but the wound was dry, not swollen, not flushed and not warmer or colder than the rest of Hongjoong’s back. 

“Yeah, my owl. Does it hurt when I press on it?”

Hongjoong shook his head. “Not more than it always does, which is basically not at all. Why do you have an owl?”

“Awesome. I have an owl because they’re basically the spine of our post system. We could remove the stitches either now or later today, it’s been almost two weeks. It’ll be less painful once they’re out because they put tension on the tissue.”

“I’m….you know what, I’m not even going to question the owls. How do you remove stitchest?”

“You cut the knot off and pull the thread out. It’s not going to be painless but it shouldn’t be overly bad.”

Hongjoong shrugged and scooted forward. “Then let’s do it now. It’s not like I have anything else to do anyway.”

“If you say so.” Seonghwa sat behind Hongjoong to have easy access to his shoulder.

“Do you mind helping me with the crossword while you’re here? There’s so much stuff I don’t know. Like, I basically know nothing.”

“Sure.” It would be fun and help with the awkward atmosphere that would settle over them otherwise. San’s words from the day before bounced around in Seonghwa’s head for a second before he pushed them away again.

“Awesome. Who was Headmaster of Hogwarts from 1942 until 1958?”

“That was before McGonagall and even before Dumbledore…. What was his name? Uhm… Dippet! It was Dippet, double p.” Seonghwa snipped the threads with his wand and pulled them out.

“D-I-P-P-E-T. Irish Phoenix. Wait, phoenixes exist?”

“That’s an augurey, A-U-G-U-R-E-Y. Yeah, they do, but they’re very rare.”

“Fascinating.” Hongjoong put augurey down and asked the next question. “What was outlawed by the Warlock’s Convention of 1709? Oh, that’s a long word.”

“I literally never paid attention in History of Magic. Nobody does, Professor Binns is very boring. The most interesting thing he has ever done was entering the classroom through the blackboard.”

“Through the blackboard.” Hongjoong lifted the pen from the paper and turned halfway to look at Seonghwa. “Can wizards phase through walls?”

Seonghwa paused and stared over Hongjoong’s shoulder to think. “Maybe with the right spell though if it exists I don’t know it. But Professor Binns doesn’t need a spell, he’s a ghost.”

Hongjoong dropped the pen and turned around fully, his eyes wide. “A  _ ghost _ ?”

“Yeah.” Hongjoong was suddenly close, very close. Then he turned away again and Seonghwa took a deep breath before continuing to remove the sutures.

“You have ghosts, you have phoenixes, next thing you tell me you have dragons and unicorns!”

“Well… we kinda do? Last one, and done.” Seonghwa collected the cut threads in his palm to throw them away. “Don’t lay down, I’ll be right back.”

After throwing everything out Seonghwa returned to where an eager Hongjoong awaited him. “You said dragons, tell me about dragons!”

Seonghwa smiled fondly. This wonder and excitement made Hongjoong strangely adorable, like a child with an adult face.

“I don’t know much about dragons but there are a few different breeds, they breathe fire, can fly and are incredibly dangerous so when you see one you better run in the opposite direction. I’m just going to put one of these sticky things on, okay? We don’t need a full bandage anymore.”

“How can you not know a lot about dragons? Dragons are cool. Can you ride them?”

Seonghwa chuckled as he pressed the gauze square with sticky edges to Hongjoong’s shoulder. “You can try but you probably wouldn’t live very long, if you even make it onto the dragon’s back.”

“Bummer. So no real-life Khaleesi then, huh?”

“What’s a Khaleesi?” Seonghwa stepped back and handed Hongjoong his shirt now that the wound was sufficiently covered.

“You don’t… right, you probably don’t have TV shows, right? That sucks, you have so much great stuff but no TV shows?” Half of the sentence was muffled as Hongjoong slipped his shirt back on.

Seonghwa leaned on the bed’s footboard with both elbows. “I vaguely remember what a TV is from class.”

“I can’t believe it. So this TV show is called Game of Thrones and it starts out with the king travelling north…” Hongjoong continued to lay out a very complicated and confusing story that seemed to feature multiple different plots at the same time with a lord becoming the king’s right hand, a bastard joining a brotherhood and a girl marrying a horse-riding savage. Seonghwa watched Hongjoong gesticulating and miming different scenes with an amused smile. 

Hongjoong was emerged in impersonating the girl eating a horse heart (for reasons that were beyond Seonghwa) when Yeosang showed up. Much to Seonghwa’s dismay San was there too. They all knew Seonghwa would never live this down, apart from Hongjoong who was blessedly clueless.

“Oh.” Hongjoong stopped right in the act of biting into air as he noticed the other two wizards. “Hello!”

“Hongjoong, these are San Choi and Yeosang Kang, aurors and my friends. They are the ones who found you and brought you to me. San, Yeosang, this is Hongjoong Kim, you’ve already met.”

“Nice to see you conscious!” San shook Hongjoong’s hand jovially. 

Hongjoong smiled politely. “Thanks, I guess? But nice to meet you too! So you’re friends with Seonghwa here. Tell me anything I could use to blackmail him into letting me leave my bed! One can only use the toilet so many times a day and I’m  _ bored _ .”

San laughed. “Ah, a man after my taste. Can we keep him? So, dirt on Seonghwa. There was this one time where-”

“ _ Silencio _ !” Seonghwa’s spell hit San square in the back. Yeosang doubled over in laughter.

“Your reactions are quite slow for an auror.” Seonghwa sheathed his wand again.

San whirled around, his mouth moving as he gesticulated angrily but no sound came out. Seonghwa just raised his eyebrows. “Did you say something?” Yeosang was now on the floor, banging his fist into the ground, while Hongjoong watched the whole thing unfold with a giddy grin.

San reached for his wand and eventually managed to lift the spell. “What was that for?”

“That was  _ amazing _ .” Yeosang got up, wiping tears of laughter.

“You’re here to see Hongjoong, not to spill my secrets.”

“Oh, yeah.” San ran his fingers through his hair. “You’re right, sorry, hyung. But never do that again, I have a reputation to lose.”

“Okay, let’s get to what we actually came here for. Mr Kim, do you remember what last happened the night before you ended up here?”

“No, not really.” Hongjoong shook his head. “It’s kinda foggy. I think I was on my way home but that’s all I know.”

“The way his shoulder looked he probably also hit his head. Judging by his injuries the spell hit his leg and the explosion threw him into a wall or something that broke his shoulder, and he very well could have hit his head there,” Seonghwa added.

“Okay. Can we look at your leg?” Hongjoong nodded and extended the leg with great effort. The flesh was still marred and looked like something out of a nightmare but under Seonghwa’s care it was starting to heal.

“Be careful if you…”

“Ouch!” Yeosang jumped back, one of the stray sparks of magic having hit his hand.

“... get closer. I prefer to wear dragon skin gloves when bandaging his leg.”

They all watched with morbid fascination when the spark sank into Yeosang’s skin and left a deep bleeding cut where it had touched him.

“So I guess it’s safe to say that the spell is still lingering and since it injures it’s definitely something dark,” Yeosang remarked drily. Seonghwa had always admired Yeosang’s ability to stay calm in every situation.

“Here, let me…” Seonghwa drew his wand and cast a healing spell. It didn’t work, instead it just caused a small spark.

“Uhm…” Yeosang looked up from his hand to Seonghwa. Blood dripped onto the floor.

“Yeah, this is what’s going on with Hongjoong’s leg as well, just on a bigger scale. When I tried to heal him it almost burned me. Come on, I’ll stitch it up, I’m pretty good at it actually. Will you two be okay?” Seonghwa turned to San and Hongjoong who were watching curiously.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.” Hongjoong smiled brightly. San just nodded, concern written on his face.

Seonghwa led Yeosang to his office where he stored his muggle medicine supplies in a cupboard above the row of bubbling cauldrons.

“Okay, let’s see.” He handed Yeosang a clean cloth to handle the blood flow for a second while Seonghwa gathered everything he needed. “Since it’s a wound inflicted by this curse I don’t know if it will help, but drink this potion. You shouldn’t feel any pain after that.”

Yeosang swallowed the potion down without question.

“I need to clean the wound.” 

Yeosang didn’t even flinch when the alcohol poured over the cut, so apparently the potion was working. “He’s giving you sex-eyes, hyung.”

“What?” Seonghwa looked up from Yeosang’s hand. “Sex-eyes? Who? And who even says sex-eyes?”

“Mr Kim. And I say sex-eyes.”

Seonghwa huffed. “That’s ridiculous, Yeosangs. He’s known me for like two days.”

“I said sex-eyes, hyung, not marry-me-eyes.” Yeosang rolled his eyes. “He wants in your trousers, not a ring on his finger.”

“Which is not going to happen,” Seonghwa answered flatly. “He’s my patient, that would be so unprofessional.”

“Come on, hyung, when was the last time you got laid?”

“That’s literally none of your business.” Seonghwa positioned the needle and worked as quickly as possible.

“But he wants you too…”, he sing-songed.

“I’m not going to sleep with him, as much as either of us may want to because that would be unprofessional as fuck and this is final, Yeosang-ah.”

“So you do want to!”

“What?” Seonghwa looked up into Yeosang’s eyes confusedly.

“You want to fuck him.”

“I never said that.” Seonghwa returned his attention to knotting the threads.

“You’re not denying it though.”

“Yeosangs. There’s nothing to deny because there’s nothing. I will keep my interactions with Hongjoong strictly professional.”

“Sure, hyung. Keep telling yourself that.”

“Fuck you.”

“No, fuck him.”

“I hate you.”

Yeosang hummed contentedly.

Yeosang and Seonghwa returned to Hongjoong, San still at his bedside. 

“How’s your hand?”

Yeosang presented his hand, wrapped in a protective bandage. “Hyung stitched it. It’ll heal, I suppose.”

San took a deep breath. “This is still weird. Are there like… actual threads under there?”

“Yup!” Seonghwa grinned proudly. Who could have guessed that muggle medicine could be so fulfilling?

“Disgusting.” San shuddered. “Anyway, I think I’ll have to get the boss in on this one.”

“Is it really that bad?” Hongjoong’s eyes were wide with worry and Seonghwa couldn’t help but coo internally.

San pursed his lips in thought, then he shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that bad. Your leg already looks a lot better than it did when we found you, it’s healing. But we need to know what spell that was, even if we can’t help you, because dark magic is always dangerous for our community.”

“Okay?” San had tried to be reassuring but Seonghwa could clearly see that it wasn’t working. Hongjoong just got more worried.

“You’ll be fine, Hongjoong.” Seonghwa couldn’t have his patient worried, he knew what an incredible influence the psyche could have on the body and Hongjoong needed to relax so he could heal.

“Yes, Mr Kim.” Yeosang nodded enthusiastically. “Hyung took care of me for like five minutes and I already feel better. Can’t imagine how you are doing with this mother hen doting on you all day.”

That made Hongjoong laugh. He threw his head back and his whole body rocked. “M- m… mother ... hen?” He dissolved into cute, contagious giggles again.

Yeosang grinned proudly at his accomplishment. “Right. We need to head out, no time for lunch today. Sorry.”

Seonghwa shrugged. “Next time. You’ll floo me, I guess?”

Yeosang rolled his eyes. “I got you a phone, why can’t we just use that?”

“Because it’s complicated and I don’t know how it works!”

Yeosang sighed in annoyance and patted Seonghwa’s shoulder. “It’s okay, hyung, we’ll get there.”

Hongjoong was still wheezing but after Yeosang and San left he slowly caught his breath. “Mother hen…. damn, he’d get along with Jongho so well. Jongho likes to complain that I’m not his mum, like, all the time. Mingi and Yunho do that too but they’re not as convincing when it comes to pretending they don’t like it.”

“Ah, yes, friends are the family you choose. And sometimes they’re your kids.”

Hongjoong stared into nothing, a fond smile spreading over his face. “It’s not like they’re not capable of being functioning adults, they just prefer not to act like it.”

Seonghwa simply watched him, silently, because it seemed like Hongjoong still wanted to add to that.

“I miss them, Seonghwa.” Hongjoong’s smile fell and Seonghwa wanted to put it right back but he didn’t know how. “I miss them a lot. I hope they’re doing okay.”

“I’m sorry.” There was nothing Seonghwa could do other than offering consolation, so he did. He grabbed Hongjoong’s hand lying limply on the bed and squeezed it. 

“It’s not your fault, but thank you.” Hongjoong squeezed back. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Healer Park, quick, an emergency, we need you!”

Seonghwa sighed. Sometimes (rarely, but it did happen) he hated his job.

When Seonghwa returned to Hongjoong after trying and unfortunately failing to save a man’s life he was feeling cranky. What was the point of magic if you couldn’t fix everything? The man had died under his hands, just like that. Seonghwa knew that there was nothing anyone could have done but helplessly watching had only made it worse. He was sad, he was angry at himself and only wanted to see Hongjoong, see a friend’s smile. Because as unprofessional as it was, he considered Hongjoong a friend. Hongjoong was simply too likeable and bubbly for Seonghwa to resist his friendship. Well at the very least Hongjoong was a friendly face.

However Hongjoong was already occupied with someone. Visiting hours were almost over and to Seonghwa’s knowledge Hongjoong didn’t know any wizards who would visit him but for some reason three young women were grouped around the end of Hongjoong’s bed, giggling about something. Seonghwa’s eyes fell on Hongjoong and his heart stuttered. Hongjoong wore a smile, yes, but it wasn’t the kind of smile Seonghwa had wanted to see. It wasn’t the usual bright, warm sunshine, but dangerous and calculating. 

Seonghwa cleared his throat, his eyes trained on Hongjoong, and watched the sun rise on Hongjoong’s face, the smirk breaking into a real smile as he noticed Seonghwa’s presence. Both didn’t even notice the women flinching.

“Hey, Seonghwa.” Hongjoong’s voice was soft, as if he sensed that Seonghwa wasn’t feeling great.

“Hi.” Seonghwa pulled a face at the sound of his own voice, rough with tears and an uncomfortable feeling roiling in his gut.

Hongjoong tilted his head. “Are you okay? Can I do anything to help you?”

“Oh please, he’s a healer, practically all-powerful.” Seonghwa swallowed. “He can obviously take care of himself. You, however, are still healing, and-” Hongjoong cut her off.

“I’m sure he’s capable of taking care of himself, but that doesn’t mean he can’t lean on his friends.” His voice was cold, his words directed at the woman, but his eyes never left Seonghwa. Friends. Hongjoong had said they were friends. Seonghwa was glad that they agreed on that one.

“It was nice to meet you, ladies, but I’m afraid that you won’t have my attention anymore. Seonghwa, come here.” He patted the mattress beside himself and gestured for Seonghwa to sit. One of the women let out a huff and pulled the others with her while Seonghwa sluggishly approached the bed and sat on the mattress facing Hongjoong.

Hongjoong immediately grabbed Seonghwa’s hand and at the warm contact Seonghwa realized how cold he was.

“What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

Seonghwa let out a dry sob he couldn’t repress anymore. “I… I…  _ I lost a life today _ .” The switch into Korean was seamless, his mother tongue providing a little comfort.

“ _ Oh no. I’m sorry _ .” Hongjoong’s hand around his tightened as he also switched languages.

“ _ It’s the fourth one I’ve lost. Four people have died, because I wasn’t good enough _ .”

“ _ I’m sure you’ve tried everything. Maybe it was just time for them to go _ .”

Silent unsolicited tears rolled over Seonghwa’s cheeks and Hongjoong brushed them away with his thumb. “ _ I’ll never forget their faces _ .”

“ _ It’s okay to remember but you also need to remember that it’s not your fault. You can mourn them, that’s okay, but I want you to know that it’s not your fault. _ ”

Seonghwa didn’t respond for a while, trying to contain his tears, and Hongjoong kept quiet too, only sitting up and pulling Seonghwa in a hug.

Hongjoong was warm and surprisingly sturdy, and he held Seonghwa without any regard to his broken shoulder when Seonghwa’s sobs finally escaped. He softly swayed them and combed his fingers through Seonghwa’s hair, occasionally mumbling some quiet Korean, like “ _ It’s okay _ ” and “ _ Let it all out _ ” until Seonghwa’s tears dwindled.

Eventually Seonghwa pulled back and wiped his nose with a spare tissue he found in his pocket. “Thank you.” His voice was thick from his raw throat and blocked nose but he felt better.

Hongjoong smiled gently. “Any time. You went way out of your way to save me, and this is the least I can do. You’ll always have a friend in me, Seonghwa.”

“Thank you. And sorry that I interrupted the flirting.”

Hongjoong chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. A flirt here and there is fun but that wasn’t going to happen anyways. I have my sights set somewhere else.”

Hongjoong’s face was unreadable and Seonghwa squirmed.

“I’m already off-duty for today so… I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure, I’ll be here.” One last squeeze and Seonghwa pulled his hand out of Hongjoong’s.

He turned to leave when Hongjoong called him back.

“Sorry, one question. Are you homophobic? Because I’m bi as hell and I’d have to think about revoking that friendship if you had a problem with my sexuality.”

That finally pulled a smile out of Seonghwa. “I’m many things, Hongjoong, but I’m not a hypocrite.” And he left without looking back or saying another word.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I also like to call this one "too close"

#

The next morning Seonghwa was mostly back on track. It wasn’t the first time and he tried to listen to Hongjoong. Mourning was okay, blaming himself wasn’t.

“Hello there!” A heavy hand landed on Seonghwa’s shoulder and Seonghwa dropped his clipboard in surprise. It was San.

“Merlin! Don’t do that again.” Seonghwa took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and picked his clipboard up again.

“Sorry.” San didn’t look like he was sorry but Seonghwa let it slide. “I’m here with my boss because of Mr Kim and he’d like to hear your opinion.”

“Okay, okay, I’m coming.” Seonghwa set his clipboard down, gave the potion a last stir and followed San.

“You coming tonight?” 

“Sure. I know you wouldn’t let me stay home so I might as well come on my own.”

San grinned brightly. “Ah, hyung, you know me too well.”

“Would be weird if I didn’t, after such a long time.” 

Seonghwa froze in his steps.

That was…. no way. No way.

There was a man talking to Hongjoong, bent over Hongjoong’s leg. The man’s hair was black and unruly and when he glanced back at San announcing their arrival his eyes were green behind round glasses. On his forehead, partly covered by his jungle of hair, was a scar in the shape of a bolt of lightning.

Holy Merlin. Right there, in Seonghwa’s ward, talking to Seonghwa’s patient as if it was nothing, was Harry fucking Potter. The Boy Who Lived. The one who defeated You-Know-Who. And he was right  _ there _ .

It wasn’t like Seonghwa didn’t know who San’s boss was, it was just… he’d never really thought about it and even when he had it had been more of a distant concept.

After a hard jab of San’s elbow to his ribs Seonghwa snapped out of his stupor and hurriedly offered his hand. “I’m sorry Mr - uhm, auror… Potter, I…” His voice sounded breathless.

Harry Potter smiled and shook Seonghwa’s hand. “You have nothing to apologize for. Nice to meet you, Healer…?”

Seonghwa hadn’t given his name. He wanted to hit himself for that. “Healer Park. Seonghwa Park.”

“Wonderful.” Harry Potter’s smile widened. “I assume you’ve been treating Mr Kim here?”

“Yeah, I have.” Seonghwa tore his eyes from Harry Potter and looked at Hongjoong who wore a mildly spooked expression at Seonghwa’s unusual behaviour.

“Great, please tell me everything you know about the wound.”

“When he entered my ward the injury had occurred a few hours prior. His leg looked burned and flayed, a bit as if he was attacked by an animal. It was bleeding though not very badly but that was because he wasn’t brought here straight away. The wound didn’t and still doesn’t react to potions but I’m pretty sure that that’s because Hongjoong is a muggle. The pain-relieving potion worked on Yeosang just fine when he was touched by the curse. Any attempt to cast a spell on it results in big sparks. I have used muggle methods to treat it and it seems to be working reasonably well. Hongjoong has been in our care for almost four weeks now.”

After Seonghwa’s monologue about Hongjoong’s stay at the hospital Harry Potter performed a few scans on Hongjoong’s leg and then started pacing through the room.

“How is the pain level, Mr. Kim?”

Hongjoong shrugged. “Not too bad, I’m on medication. My shoulder hurt worse the first few days but now that I don’t feel that anymore my leg hurts more. It’s bearable.”

Harry Potter nodded slowly, giving up his pacing and standing at the end of Hongjoong’s bed instead, the eyes behind his round glasses trained on Hongjoong’s leg.

“I’ve only ever seen one similar curse, but it was only similar. The curse I know inflicts wounds that seem to have been left by a sword, but this is… different. It’s more like someone bathed your leg in razor blades.”

“That sounds even more unpleasant than I thought it already was.” Hongjoong shivered, keeping his eyes on Harry Potter.

“Trust me, it is unpleasant.” Harry Potter laughed bitterly. “My brother-in-law has lost an ear to that curse and I- one of my yearmates at Hogwarts almost died because of it.” A dark shadow passed the auror’s face. “This is not the same curse, but it’s horrifyingly similar. It’s like someone experimented with the original curse and that worries me.” He brooded for a moment longer, leaning his elbows on the footboard and staring at Hongjoong’s shin. “I’ll have to get back to you on this one, I have to do some research first.” He stood up straight and Seonghwa only then noticed how short his childhood hero actually was. He just about reached Seonghwa’s chin.

“I’ll owl you.” Harry Potter shook everyone’s hands again before he took his leave, San trailing behind him with a “See you later” in Seonghwa’s direction. Seonghwa stared after them.

Hongjoong cleared his throat but Seonghwa barely registered that. “Uhm… Seonghwa?”

Seonghwa jumped and turned around. “Huh?”

Hongjoong grinned. “You okay? You seem pretty star-struck.”

“Well, I kind of am.” Seonghwa ran a hand through his hair, lowering his gaze to the floor.. “This man is my childhood hero. He’s famous, everyone knows his name.”

“You’re cute when you’re flustered.”

Seonghwa’s eyes snapped back up to Hongjoong’s face. “What?”

Hongjoong shrugged, a smirk tugging at his lips. “I said what I said. But what’s the deal with this guy? What did he do to be this famous?”

“You… whatever. I actually have things to do now.” Seonghwa turned on his heel, a chuckle echoing behind him, and strode back to his office. What was Hongjoong  _ doing _ ?

Work drove both Hongjoong and Harry Potter from Seonghwa’s mind until his shift was almost over and the only thing he had left to do was changing Hongjoong’s bandages. 

With fresh bandages tucked under his arm he made his way to Hongjoong’s bed. Hongjoong greeted him with a smile.

“Hey there.” His soft voice broke the silence when Seonghwa didn’t say anything because he didn’t know what to say. “Sorry about making you uncomfortable earlier.”

Seonghwa looked up from the bandages he had dumped on Hongjoong’s blanket. “It’s fine.” He wished he didn’t know what Hongjoong was talking about because then it wouldn’t even have mattered to him but unfortunately he knew too well. It did matter.

“Can I see your shoulder?”

“Of course.” Hongjoong pulled his shirt over his head easily. His shoulder looked absolutely fine, the surgery scar was healing almost seamlessly and was only a pink line. No swelling, no flushing and it was the same temperature as the rest of his skin.

“Looks good.” A quick scan with his wand told him that the bone wasn’t fully healed yet but well on the way. It was fascinating, he had never seen a bone heal in real time, the process was usually sped up by magic but since that didn’t work on Hongjoong, Seonghwa got to watch.

“Who was this guy? You told me he’s famous but I obviously don’t know why. Tell me about him?” Hongjoong’s voice was quiet, matching the atmosphere of a hospital settling down for the night, healers softening their steps and speaking in hushed voices as to not disturb the patients going to sleep.

“He’s… I of course only know the official story, but… They call him the Boy Who Lived.”

Seonghwa moved on from Hongjoong’s shoulder to his leg, slowly and carefully unwrapping the bandages with gloved fingers.

“You know, in the 70s there was… a dark wizard. We don’t speak his name and just call him You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It used to be out of fear but by now, especially in the generations who haven’t witnessed him, it’s mostly out of habit. Now, he built a reign of terror. Nobody could withstand him and there was only one wizard in the world he feared. One day he tried to kill a baby.”

“Why would anyone want to kill a baby? Babies are adorable!”

“I know, right? But he failed. His curse rebounded and hit himself. Nobody knows how he survived but he did. The baby he tried to kill was Harry Potter.”

Seonghwa inspected Hongjoong’s leg closely. It looked good.

“That’s where the Boy Who Lived comes from. He’s the only known survivor of the Killing Curse.”

“A killing curse?” Hongjoong sounded absolutely horrified. “You have a killing curse? Like, an actually fatal curse?”

“Yes.” Seonghwa sighed. “Unfortunately we do. There’s more spells and curses and jinxes that can be lethal but this one is absolutely deadly. It’s one of the three Unforgivable Curses and strictly forbidden but You-Know-Who obviously didn’t care.”

“Damn. Fuck, magic is scarier than I thought, honestly.”

“Sorry.” Seonghwa wrapped a fresh bandage around Hongjoong’s leg.

“You’re not scary though, Seonghwa. You’ve been nothing but kind to me. I’m not scared of you.”

“Thanks.” 

“Seonghwa, here you are. Your shift is over, anything I need to know? Oh, good evening, Mr Kim.”

Seonghwa relayed the details of his shift to Melody. “I’ll just finish here.” She nodded and left to tend to the potions. Seonghwa secured the end of the bandage with a smile and then pulled a chair closer to collapse on it. His feet were killing him. “The story isn’t finished though. Harry Potter grew up and went to school. In Harry Potter’s fourth year You-Know-Who started to rise to power again. The ministry of magic denied it for an entire year before they admitted that he was indeed back. The Second Wizarding War began and was later won during the Battle of Hogwarts. It’s complicated but Harry Potter didn’t actually kill You-Know-Who even though he did.”

Hongjoong frowned in confusion. “Elaborate please. How do you kill someone without killing them?”

Seonghwa chuckled and went on to explain the bits and pieces he knew about wand lore and the story of the Elder Wand and how it had never belonged to You-Know-Who. Hongjoong asked more and more questions, about spells, about Hogwarts, about the Ministry of Magic, and even got Seonghwa to demonstrate a few spells. From there on their conversation got out of hand and Hongjoong told Seonghwa about his job as a freelance photographer and the coffee shop his friends owned while Seonghwa talked about how it was to grow up as a wizard.

It felt like only twenty minutes when Melody showed up again. “Seonghwa, you’re still here! Why? Your shift ended over five hours ago! It’s past midnight.”

Seonghwa startled and pulled his watch out of his pocket. Melody was right. “Oh shit. Fuck, I was supposed to meet my friends tonight!” He tipped his head back with a groan. “They’re probably mad at me now.”

“Seonghwa, dear, I’m not going to tell you how you should spend your free time but maybe you should go home and actually sleep.” Melody placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, I should.” Seonghwa picked his head up again and instantly noticed the way Hongjoong’s eyes were fixed on his throat. He decided not to dwell on that. “Damn, I’ll have to Apparate home because the trains stop running at midnight.”

Melody shrugged. “You can always have some of my Floo powder if you want. Heaps of people can’t Apparate, it’s not a shame.”

“No, thanks, Melody. I’ll Apparate. I  _ can _ Apparate, I just hate doing it.” He got up and put the chair back where it belonged.

“See you tomorrow then,” Hongjoong said.

“Well, no.” Seonghwa looked up. “Actually not. Tomorrow is my free day, like my first free day in a month.”

“Oh. Okay. The day after tomorrow then?”

“Of course.” Seonghwa smiled and to his relief Hongjoong smiled back.

“Okay. Enjoy your free day! And you wizards need to change labour laws because one free day in a month?”

Melody laughed over where she was checking Hongjoong’s chart. “He could have more free days if he wanted to but he’s just a damn workaholic.”

“That sounds familiar,” Hongjoong mumbled under his breath.

“Have a nice day tomorrow, Hongjoong.”

“You too!”

“Come on, I’ll escort you out, Seonghwa.” Melody put the chart down and took the arm Seonghwa was offering, his mother had raised a gentleman after all. He knew that this was going somewhere and he was proven correct as soon as they got out of Hongjoong’s earshot.

“Seonghwa, is there something going on between you and Mr. Kim?”

Seonghwa’s heart froze. Had she noticed something? Because at this point he couldn’t deny that he was attracted to Hongjoong but he did his best not to show it. “No,” he said, keeping his eyes trained on the floor. “Why are you asking?”

“Well… I don’t want to offend you and your relationships are really none of my business but Mr Kim is our patient. We as healers are in a position of power here and I don’t think that you want to do something bad to Mr Kim, it’s just… please don’t abuse your position.”

“I won’t.” Seonghwa shook his head vigorously. “Hongjoong is my friend, but it doesn’t go further than that.”

“Okay.” Melody released his arm. “I trust you. But does he know that?”

“I don’t know, Melody. I only know that I won’t abuse my position.”

Melody smiled at him and rubbed his arm reassuringly. “Then that’s enough. Good night, Seonghwa, enjoy your free day. I’ll see you soon.”

“Good night, Melody.” Seonghwa grabbed his bag and his wand and twisted on the spot. The next second he stood in his flat, shivering. He didn’t know whether it was because of the uncomfortable feeling of Apparition or the conversation he’d just had with Melody.

* * *

“You stood us up!” Oh, Seonghwa was weak. He had always been weak for Wooyoung’s pout but disappointed Wooyoung’s pout was much, much worse.

“I’m so sorry! I was talking to Hongjoong and spent the whole evening chatting, I didn’t even notice the time passing.”

Wooyoung was still pouting when he tipped against Seonghwa and let himself be hugged, no regard for his co-workers bustling about in the busy office Seonghwa had found him in. “I can’t believe you forgot us over a guy! What happened to bros before hoes?”

Seonghwa sighed and wrapped his arms tighter around Wooyoung. “First of all, you hang out with Yeosang too much, that’s a terrible expression. Second, I told you I’m sorry. Third, there is nothing going on between Hongjoong and me, at least not what you’re implying.”

Wooyoung picked his head up to look at Seonghwa and scoffed. At least the pout was gone. “Come on, hyung. You like him. We both know he’s your type.”

“Even if he is, it doesn’t matter. He’s my patient, I’m his healer. I’m already acting unprofessionally by being his friend, I won’t make it worse.”

“You’re no fun, hyung.” The pout was back. Since Seonghwa was so defenseless against it he closed his eyes so he didn’t have to see Wooyoung’s face anymore because it would just make him even weaker.

“I could get in serious trouble if I broke that rule and lose my job. I’m not going to risk that for someone who will be Obliviated as soon as he’s healed. The answer is no, Wooyoung, and that’s final.” He’d had time to think about it the night before and that was the conclusion he had come to.

“I guess.” Wooyoung sighed. “Are you at least going to treat me to lunch?”

Seonghwa grinned and opened his arms. “Why else would I be here?”

Wooyoung’s face lit up. “That’s why you’re my favourite hyung.”

* * *

Seonghwa had spent his free day making up to his friends, not that he minded really, and returned to his ward in good spirits.

Mrs. Pitternicks fingers were back to normal and Ms. Shacklewood would also be discharged soon.

Hongjoong would have to stay for another while, at least until the fracture in his shoulder had healed and the curse left his body. The sparks were slowly but steadily getting weaker as the curse lost power. He was getting antsy, cabin fever getting the better of him as he bounced on the bed, balancing on his good arm and leg.

Seonghwa was documenting his process on Hongjoong’s chart when Hongjoong whined for his attention.

“Seonghwa, I’m bored.” He drew out both Seonghwa’s name and the word bored.

“Hm?” Seonghwa looked up from the chart.

“I said I’m bored.” Hongjoong pulled a face and stared at Seonghwa with wide eyes. “Really bored.”

Seonghwa laughed about his friend’s antics. “Sorry about that but I’m afraid there’s not much I can do. I’m working.”

Hongjoong groaned in annoyance and dropped back into the pillows, spread-eagle on his bed. “I’m going crazy in here…”, he sing-songed.

“I’m really sorry, but I have other patients who need me. See you later?”

Hongjoong nodded with a wistful sigh.

After the end of his shift Seonghwa burst into Hongjoong’s room, a bag in hand.

“Dinner!” He dropped the bag on Hongjoong’s lap and went to pull a chair closer so they could share.

“Huh?” Hongjoong looked up from a book and poked at the paper bag. 

“I thought I’d have dinner with you and keep you company to at least save you from boredom a little bit.”

Hongjoong’s smile seemed bright enough to light the entire hospital. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Hongjoong picked up the bag and looked at the logo. “McDonald’s?”

“Not good?” Suddenly Seonghwa wasn’t so sure of his plan anymore. “Wooyoung recommended it, he’s obsessed with muggles so I thought it was okay…”

Hongjoong laughed, marked his page in the book and put it away. “No, no, it’s great if you want to die of a heart attack. I’m mostly surprised that a  _ doctor _ of all people would give me greasy fast food. Not complaining,” he added with a look at Seonghwa’s face. “Merely surprised.”

“I’m not a doctor,” Seonghwa grumbled under his breath. “I’m a healer.”

“You used normal people methods to heal me. I think you qualify as a doctor. Live with it.” Hongjoong was already digging through the bag and laying everything out on his blanket. 

Seonghwa huffed but Hongjoong made it difficult to be grumpy around him.

A few days later Seonghwa was speed-walking down the street, his head ducked and his collar pulled up against the rain. Of course it didn’t matter how wet he got, he could easily dry himself with a spell once he arrived at work, it was honestly just a habit. The sight of something colourful in the corner of his eye made him freeze in his tracks, rain dripping down his neck. Well, his fault for forgetting his umbrella. His attention had been caught by a flower shop. Their bright collection of different flowers was so striking that it shone through the grey London rain. Could he? No, he absolutely shouldn’t. He should keep walking or he’d be late and Melody would have his head. Despite everything telling him not to, he found himself entering the shop and buying a small bouquet. At least he had made sure to ask the clerk that the flowers didn’t portray any romantic intentions. Apparently daisies just meant new beginnings and could be interpreted as “get well soon”. Completely innocent, right?

Hongjoong visibly brightened up when he saw Seonghwa and even more when he saw the flowers.

“Thank you! Like, so much! Thank you.”

“I just thought since you can’t have visitors you never get anything so…” Seonghwa didn’t know why he felt the need to clarify that. Clarifying something meant acknowledging it. He should treat it like it was normal, like it wasn’t a necessity to explain.

“Thank you very much!” Hongjoong beamed at Seonghwa and Seonghwa almost staggered back.

“You’re welcome.”

The daisies were a bright spot in Hongjoong’s room and if Seonghwa subtly cast a spell on them to keep them fresh because of the smile they put on Hongjoong’s face nobody had to know.

Visiting Hongjoong first thing in the morning had become part of Seonghwa’s everyday routine at this point. 

“This is healing really well. You’ll be out of here in no time.” The scar on Hongjoong’s shoulder was obviously still visible but it looked like it would have looked after just a few seconds had Seonghwa’s spell worked.

“Thank god. I’m going crazy in here and there are so many things I wanna do once I’m out.”

“Tell me about them?” Seonghwa moved on to Hongjoong’s leg with a smile. 

“Well first of all I have to make sure that I still have clients since I haven’t taken any pictures of anything since the accident. Then I’ll have to visit my grandma who’s been bugging me to come by since last year.” Hongjoong chuckled. “I’m not the best grandson, am I?”

“I’m sure she’ll forgive you.”

“She probably will even though she shouldn’t. She’s an angel. And I’ll have to visit you! For all you’ve done for me I at least have to buy you dinner. At the very least.”

Hongjoong’s eyes sparkled and Seonghwa didn’t know what to think. He felt a mixture of his gut soaring because Hongjoong had just basically asked him out and sinking dread because he knew how their relationship would end.

“I thought someone had told you this. You will be Obliviated, Hongjoong.”

“What does that mean?” The sparkle hadn’t left Hongjoong’s eyes.

“We’ll cast a spell on you that will make you forget magic and everything that happened here.”

“Including you?” His eyes  _ still _ sparkled.

“Including me.”

“Oh. Well, then I should better do this while I still remember you, right?”

Hongjoong leaned into Seonghwa who was still bent over him to look at his leg and kissed him.

Seonghwa froze in place, trying to process what was happening. Hongjoong’s lips were warm and soft and smooth. Hongjoong’s hands threaded into the hair at the base of Seonghwa’s head, softly scratching at his scalp.

Oh, Seonghwa wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Hongjoong’s small body that he just  _ knew _ would fit perfectly into his arms, to kiss Hongjoong back, to feel that warmth under his hands. But he couldn’t. He also couldn’t bring himself to push Hongjoong away so the maximum he could do was to stay completely still. He refused to let a single muscle move, as much as he  _ wanted _ to, and managed to keep his body frozen until Hongjoong let go.

“I’m sorry.” Hongjoong’s expression was more guarded and distant than Seonghwa had ever wanted it to be. “I thought you wanted… but I obviously misread the signs. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“No, I’m sorry, Hongjoong. You didn’t misread anything because… I was careless. I let you see when I shouldn’t have.”

Hongjoong scowled. “I’m not sure I understand?”

Seonghwa took a deep breath. This was it. Evading or lying would only hurt both of them. “I wanted to kiss you back, Hongjoong. You read everything correctly, I like you, a lot, more than I should. And that’s the problem. I’m your healer, you’re my patient. As much as I want to, I  _ can’t _ .”

“I…” Hongjoong stays silent for a while. “Okay.” He sounded meeker than he ever had in the whole time Seonghwa had known him which was close to two months now. It was painful.

“I’m so sorry.” Seonghwa finished securing the bandage and fled from the room.

He finished his shift methodically before he had to go check on Hongjoong again.

“Hey.” Hongjoong didn’t meet Seonghwa’s eyes and Seonghwa desperately missed his brilliant smile.

“Hello.” It was the first time that the air between them was awkward and Seonghwa hated it.

Hongjoong didn’t talk and the silence grated on Seonghwa’s nerves so much that he just had to fill it as he got on with changing the bandage.

“I’m so sorry, Hongjoong, this…  _ thing _ is completely my fault. I should have hidden my feelings better.” He didn’t dare to look at Hongjoong’s face and kept his eyes trained on the bandage instead.

Hongjoong laughed but it didn’t sound happy. “It takes two, Seonghwa. And… I get your reason, I just wished it didn’t exist.”

Seonghwa allowed himself a small smile.

“I really won’t remember anything?” Hongjoong sounded so beaten that Seonghwa’s gut wrenched.

“You won’t. I’m sorry, we have to keep magic secret. While I don’t think you’d tell anyone the law doesn’t care. We’ll have to Obliviate you, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s… well, I have the easy part on this one, right? I’ll simply forget you. You’ll remember.”

“It is what it is.” Seonghwa dared to look up after securing the end of the bandage.

“Just…” Hongjoong bit his lip. “Just answer me one question. If this was different… if we were not patient and doctor but, I don’t know, had met in a coffee shop, would you let me take you on a date?”

Seonghwa smiled sadly. “I would have asked you out in a heartbeat. But things are as they are and there’s nothing we can do about it. I am so sorry.”


	4. Chapter 4

#

Seonghwa did something he had never done before. He requested a two-week leave. His boss was so happy about the fact that he didn’t have to be forced to take a break that she granted it in a heartbeat.

Seonghwa knew that it was a coward’s way out but… well, he was a coward. At least in this case. Hongjoong’s shoulder was no problem at all, it was healing quickly and easily, and his leg healed too, the aurors were working on a counter curse. With a little luck Hongjoong would be gone when Seonghwa returned.

Seonghwa visited his parents in Sussex, then his grandparents in Korea and at last his uncle in America. They were all happy to see him and Seonghwa did his best to forget about Hongjoong in their care, but it wasn’t easy. He was like under a spell, in fact his uncle tried to cast  _ Finite incantatem _ on Seonghwa multiple times but of course that didn’t help. The spell only broke on Seonghwa’s last evening at his uncle’s house when San contacted him via the floo network.

“You can come out of hiding, hyung. My boss found the counter-curse. He’s been discharged from the hospital this morning because since the curse was gone spells finally worked on him and he’s fully healed.” San didn’t say a name but he didn’t have to. Even if Hongjoong’s case hadn’t been that distinct Seonghwa would have known.

Seonghwa hadn’t told anyone that he was hiding. His friends were more observant than he usually gave them credit for.

The day he returned was strange. He had been gone for longer than he had ever been in his entire career so he was completely out of the loop about patients and schedules. This was why he hated leaving work for too long.

Melody greeted him with a smile and before he could ask her to catch him up she handed him a piece of parchment. “Someone gave me this for you.”

_ You were an asshole to leave me like this but I believe in second chances. This is a coffee shop I often go to. Come find me. I won’t know if you don’t… but I hope you do. _

Under the note was an address. Seonghwa instantly knew who it was from. 

“Are you going to go?” So Melody had read it. Seonghwa wasn’t surprised.

He didn’t really know what to say after having spent the last two weeks trying to forget Hongjoong. “I don’t… I…”

Melody waited impatiently and listened to Seonghwa’s fumbling.

“No, I shouldn’t go.”

Melody lifted an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “You totally should. He waited for you. At every shift changeover he was looking for you. He wants you enough to take a chance in asking you to come find him because he can’t. And he’s not your patient anymore. The thing we talked about… it doesn’t apply anymore. He’s fully healed, not under your care anymore. You’re free to do what you want now, Seonghwa.”

“I’ll think about it.” That seemed to appease Melody. Seonghwa fully intended to throw the note away as soon as she was out of sight but found himself slipping it into his pocket instead.

Work was normal, for the first time in quite a while. The only thing Seonghwa felt during his shift was general post-breakup sadness even though they technically hadn’t even broken up, short bursts of fondness when talking to a colleague and quick flashes of happiness when he was able to help someone.

Wooyoung was waiting outside the hospital after Seonghwa’s shift and startled him by wrapping him in a hug. “Hey hyung.”

After calming his racing heart Seonghwa hugged Wooyoung back. “Hey, I didn’t think I’d see you here.”

Wooyoung lifted his head from Seonghwa’s chest to be able to look him in the face. “San said you’re in a mood so we’re buying you dinner today.”

Seonghwa huffed. “I’m not  _ in a mood _ .”

“Yes, you are.” Wooyoung rolled his eyes. “No buts, San and and Yeosang are going to come by later, they’re still working.”

And because Seonghwa was weak for Wooyoung and couldn’t deny him anything he let Wooyoung drag him down the street into a pub.

“So where have you been for the last two weeks, hyung? Everybody refused to tell me.” Wooyoung pouted and Seonghwa chuckled, ruffling Wooyoung’s hair.

“Because you wouldn’t have left me alone. I visited my parents, my grandparents and my uncle. Haven’t seen them in a while.”

Wooyoung scoffed. “Oh come on, hyung. You never put visiting family over work, you damn work-a-holic. Why now?”

“I just… felt like it.” Seonghwa fidgeted, not daring to meet Wooyoung’s eyes. He was not a good liar.

“No, you did absolutely not and we both know it. There’s something cooking. Out with it, hyung.”

Wooyoung bugged Seonghwa all the way to the pub and the whole time until their food came which thankfully distracted him.

San and Yeosang arrived a little later, still out of breath with a nasty gash along Yeosang’s cheek.

“Merlin!” Seonghwa took one look at him and dragged him out of the packed pub and into a dark alleyway to heal Yeosang’s cheek. “What happened?”

“A fugitive escaped into a hippogriff breeding pen. Must have overlooked that one to bow to, he wasn’t happy. Honestly, it’s not too bad, hyung.”

“You’re stupid.” Seonghwa waved his wand over Yeosang’s cheek and skin formed over the wound, sealing it completely and without a single scar.

Yeosang hummed. “Maybe. But what about you, why were you hiding?”

Seonghwa stopped inspecting Yeosang’s cheek. Yeosang would tease people mercilessly from time to time but he wasn’t Wooyoung. He knew when to stop. “I… I think you know, Yeosangs.”

Yeosang sighed. “I probably do. So things with Hongjoong didn’t go too well?”

“They were never meant to.” Seonghwa leaned on the brick wall of the pub next to Yeosang.

“They could have though. But at least you’re not in denial anymore, that’s an important first step.”

Seonghwa smiled weakly. “He… we actually talked about it. You know, that we… like each other.” The second half of the sentence became a whisper. “He’s gone now, healed and Obliviated.”

“I’m sorry, hyung.” Yeosang’s hand snuck into Seonghwa’s and held it tightly. Seonghwa was thankful for the warmth. 

“I… I was gone for the rest of his stay at St. Mungo’s and he still left a note for me. He told me to find him.” Seonghwa pulled the piece of parchment from his pocket where it still resided despite his intentions to throw it away.

Yeosang pushed himself off the wall and stood to face Seonghwa, snatching the parchment and reading the short note. “That’s your chance, hyung! Are you going to?”

Seonghwa tipped his head back against the bricks and bit his lip. “Should I?”

“That’s for you to decide. He obviously wants you to, otherwise he wouldn’t have left this.” Yeosang waved the piece of parchment. “Do you want to?”

“I… I’d… I wanted to throw this away.”

“But you didn’t.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Don’t you think that means something?” Yeosang slipped the parchment back into Seonghwa’s pocket. “Think about it. It’s not my decision but my advice is that you should go. You want him, he wants you. The worst thing that can happen is that he turns you down but then you’ll at least get a better sense of closure. What do you have to lose, hyung?”

Yeosang left Seonghwa alone with his thoughts with a last smile and a squeeze of his hand.

Seonghwa stayed outside the pub until it closed, leaning against the bricks, staring into the starless sky - London light pollution and smog - and thought about Hongjoong and the future.

Yeosang was right. Seonghwa had nothing to lose and a lot to win. So why not?

It took Seonghwa two weeks to gather up the courage to go to the place. The narrow alleyway the coffee shop was tucked away in reminded him of Diagon Alley. A cheerful chime went off over his head as he pushed the door open, escaping the fog into the comfortably warm air that smelled like coffee.

Seonghwa’s first impression of the shop was “happy”. The walls were a bright but not blinding yellow, none of the furniture matched and the music in the background immediately lifted Seonghwa’s spirits. This definitely seemed like a place Hongjoong would come to often.

But… Hongjoong wasn’t there. The only splash of bright red was a guest’s t-shirt. Seonghwa wilted and was about to turn around when someone crashed into his back.

“Could you please not block the door thank you.” A young man pushed past Seonghwa to the counter, grasping his attention.

“Jongho, how many times do I have to tell you to not shove our guests?”, the barista tending the counter scolded the young man.

“Tell them to not stand in the way and you won’t have to yell at me anymore.”

Seonghwa was about to leave for good when the barista spoke again.

“If Hongjoong were here he wouldn’t let you off the hook with that.” 

Hongjoong! He had mentioned Hongjoong!

Seonghwa stepped into the shop and up to the counter where the young man waited to be served.

“Hello sir, what can I get started for you?” The barista smiled and Seonghwa had to think of a giant puppy.

“Uh… just a berry tea please?” It was the evening and Seonghwa did plan on sleeping through the night. Coffee would be counterproductive.

“Sure, will you stay or do you want it to go?”

“I’ll… I’ll stay here.” He might as well, he had nowhere to be since his shift was over and maybe Hongjoong would show up.

“Wonderful.” The barista smiled again. “Go choose a table, I’ll bring it to you.”

Now in the evening the shop was relatively empty, just the woman in the bright red shirt reading a book by the window, a college student cramming in the corner, the barista, the young man and Seonghwa but Seonghwa imagined that it got pretty packed in the afternoon.

He spent his evening sipping his tea - it was delicious - and pouring over an essay about the efficiency of ergometry compared to other methods of examination. In the beginning it had been a necessity to treat Hongjoong but muggle medicine had fascinated him so much that he couldn’t stop learning about it. Fortunately the muggle library had quite an extensive section on medicine. It was fairly relaxing even though he was disappointed that Hongjoong didn’t show up. Granted, he wouldn’t have known what to do but it was still unfortunate.

“Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, Yeosangs. Maybe that was a sign that I shouldn’t be doing this.”

“You’re stupid, hyung. He said he goes there often, not every day. And who knows, maybe he just doesn’t have time to go, he was in the hospital for a while, he probably has a lot to catch up on.”

“I still don’t know…”

“We can go together, hyung. We can just go and hang out. The worst that’ll happen is that we had coffee together.”

“Fine.” 

Yeosang had a lot of fun dragging Seonghwa to the coffee shop every day for a week. He usually wasn’t one for going out but when it was about someone else than himself he had no problem chatting up strangers. In fact he befriended Yunho, the barista, rather quickly and Seonghwa wasn’t sure if that was his shy best friend anymore. 

But that was everything that happened for a week. Hongjoong didn’t show up, or maybe they just missed each other. Seonghwa only went in the evenings, after his shifts. If Hongjoong went during the day Seonghwa wouldn’t find him. Yeosang somehow managed to inconspicuously get the information out of Yunho that Hongjoong had been gone for months (Seonghwa and Yeosang knew exactly where he had been) and had disappeared  _ again _ shortly after he’d come back. This time he had told his friends that he was leaving for a while, he just didn’t say where he was going and now it was impossible to get a hold of him, even with these fartphones. 

But even though he was bummed about the distinct lack of Hongjoong Seonghwa couldn’t help but enjoy his time in the coffee shop. Their tea was good, nobody laughed when he ordered coffee with seven pumps of syrup, the ambience was nice to read or chat and Yunho was easy to get along with. Yunho also introduced Seonghwa to his boyfriend Mingi, co-owner of the shop, and Jongho, the young man who had run Seonghwa over on his first visit. So even if he never saw Hongjoong again, at least Seonghwa had gained friends.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have some very, VERY flustered Hwa  
> Also idk much about London geography (read: been there before but know nothing) so... please just bear with me and pretend like everything's alright (or tell me if you know something, that's alright too)

#

Over three weeks after Seonghwa had started going to the coffee shop he walked in, waved at Jongho who was sitting in a corner with a black-haired man, open textbooks in front of them, and then went over to the counter to order his customary berry tea. 

“Hey, how are you? Where’s Yeosang?” Yunho looked at Seonghwa curiously while fishing for the teabag. 

“He couldn’t make it today. Late shift.”

“Ah, I know the pain.” Yunho grinned, winked at Seonghwa and pushed the cup over the counter. “There you go.”

“Thank you, Yunho.” Seonghwa grabbed the cup and shouldered his backpack again. It was heavy today because he was carrying a huge volume about pharmacology and toxicology.

“Good evening, Jongho. Mind if I keep you company?” Seonghwa slid in the chair across from Jongho.

Jongho looked up briefly, waved his hand noncommittally and focused back on his textbooks. Seonghwa took that as “Sure, have a seat.” He found a spot among the books for his teacup and heaved his own book out of his bag.

Then he looked up and….

It was Hongjoong. The man next to Jongho, helping him with his studies, was Hongjoong.

Hongjoong’s hair was black. _Black_. Seonghwa had deemed him good-looking with red hair but… damn, that hit differently. He… he was breathtaking. And it was the reason why Seonghwa hadn’t recognized him straight away. Seonghwa started to panic. What was the next step again? He had found Hongjoong, and now? What came next?

Thankfully both men were so focused that they didn’t notice Seongwa’s staring. But Yunho did.

“Have you seen a ghost, Seonghwa?” He sat next to Seonghwa, a cup of coffee in his hand. Apparently business was slow enough for him to take a break. “At least blink.”

That ripped Seonghwa out of his Hongjoong-induced stupor. “Sorry.”

Yunho threw him a knowing grin. “Let me introduce you. Hongjoong, this is Seonghwa. Seonghwa, this is Hongjoong.” As if Seonghwa didn’t already know. Yunho continued in a stage-whisper. “He’s single by the way.”

“Thanks for exposing me, Yunho,” Hongjoong grumbled, waving at Seonghwa with a sweater paw. _Cute_. 

“You’re welcome,” Yunho said cheerily, getting up to man the counter because a couple had just entered the coffee shop.

Hongjoong watched Yunho’s retreating back with a shake of his head before focusing on the textbook again. Seonghwa finally managed to tear his gaze from the other man’s face and looked down at the book in his lap without seeing it. Fuck. What was he supposed to do now? How could he start a conversation? Hey, you don’t remember but you stole my heart? Obviously not, but what else was he supposed to say?

Jongho snapping the textbook shut broke through Seonghwa’s desperation. “Okay, what I don’t know now I won’t learn anymore anyway. Jesus, finals suck.”

Hongjoong patted Jongho’s shoulder. “Don’t worry too much, you’ll be fine.”

Jongho just groaned and shoved his face into his crossed arms on the table. “Just let me die.” His voice was muffled by his sweater.

Hongjoong giggled, making Seonghwa’s heart stop, and ruffled Jongho’s hair.

“So, you are a friend of Yunho’s?”

It took a while for Seonghwa to realize that Hongjoong had addressed him. 

“Ahm. Yes. Yes, kind of.”

Hongjoong smiled and Seonghwa swallowed. He was so _beautiful_. So bright.

“Kind of?”

“I… yes?”

Hongjoong’s laughter was beautiful too. “So what brings you here, Seonghwa? Are you a student too?” He nodded towards the book on Seonghwa’s lap.

“Oh.” Seonghwa looked down at the volume that he had completely forgotten about. “Ahm, no. I’m a… doctor.” He couldn’t say healer.

“A doctor? Oh, that’s cool. What field?”

“Oh. Ahm.” Seonghwa wrecked his brain for all the information about muggle medicine he had absorbed like a dry sponge over the last few months. “Traumatology,” he mumbled. That was probably the closest thing.

“So you deal with people who’ve been in accidents?”

“Yeah, mostly.” Seonghwa still didn’t look up from his book. Maybe this was better. When he didn’t look at Hongjoong he retained at least part of his thinking skills. Why had it been so much easier in the hospital? Why was he so shy now? He’d been talking to Hongjoong for months without a problem but _now_ he got flustered.

“I’m an accident.” Jongho still didn’t raise his head.

“No, you’re not. In fact you’re rather handsome so if you could…”

Jongho finally sat back up. “Hyung _no_. For the last time. I won’t model for you.”

“Oh come on!” Had Hongjoong always been this adorable? “You don’t even need to do anything! You just need to sit there and look a bit bitchy.”

“No.”

“But Mingi and Yunho won’t do it either and I really need these pictures for my application!” He turned to Seonghwa to explain. “I’m a freelance photographer but for some reason I decided to fuck off to Norway for a few months which means I lost all of my clients. Now I want to join a studio so I’ll have a steady income.”

Seonghwa winced slightly. Even though there had been no other way to treat Hongjoong he had been the one to keep him in the hospital.

“But for my application I need a portfolio. I have literally everything else, I took a few pictures at my brother’s wedding, I have scenery, I have architecture, I have _everything_ , now I just need portraits and candids.”

“I could model for you.” Wait what. Had he really just said that? But as soon as Seonghwa saw the way Hongjoong’s face lit up he didn’t regret it one bit.

“You would? Oh my god thank you! You’re literally saving my ass. When are you free?”

Well that was the problem, wasn’t it? Seonghwa was _never_ free, he was always working. But he was sure he’d find someone who’d cover for him. “How about… the day after tomorrow?” That should give him enough time to find someone to cover his shift. Maybe Melody would do it. 

Hongjoong had pulled out a planner and flipped through it. “Yeah… yeah, that works. At ten in the morning or is that too early?”

“Oh… no, it’s not. I usually get up at five for my shifts.”

Hongjoong’s eyes widened comically, making Seonghwa smile. “At five? Are you insane?”

“No, just dedicated.” Ah, there was his confidence. Or at least part of it.

“We stan.” Yunho dropped back into the chair next to Seonghwa. “Dedication is sexy.” He winked at Hongjoong who rolled his eyes. Seonghwa blushed. Okay, no confidence.

“Shut up, Yunho. Can I have your number, Seonghwa? That would make coordination easier.” 

Oh crap. He forgot that phones were a thing.

“I would give it to you but… I don’t have my phone on me and I don’t know my number. Sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it, I’ll just text Yeosang, I’m sure he’ll give it to us.” Yunho already had his phone out. That was a possibility? Okay, Seonghwa wasn’t going to question it. 

“Thanks, Yunho.”

Seonghwa finally took a sip of his tea. It was lukewarm. He’d have to ask Yeosang for another crash course in muggle technology. Or Wooyoung. San would have the time of his life with this.

As soon as Seonghwa got home he summoned his phone. It soared into his palm and he simply stared at it for a while. What now? It needed energy. Cha- charge. Right? He had a cable for that. Somewhere. Thank Merlin for the Summoning Charm. Seonghwa plugged the thing in - after figuring out which plug went in which outlet - and called it a night. He had work the next morning.

“I’m a bit hurt that you try to use a phone for your crush but not for us.” Yeosang’s pout wasn’t quite as devastating as Wooyoung’s but it still did the trick.

“Yeosangs. Please. Weren’t you the one who told me to go for it? Then help me now!”

“Fine.”

Seonghwa was lucky, as soon as he mentioned he needed the day off to meet Hongjoong Melody immediately volunteered to take on his shift.

And this was how he found himself in front of Hongjoong’s door at five to ten on a gloomy day, too nervous to ring the bell. His face was bare as always and he had a bag with a few different outfits slung over his shoulder because he didn’t know what style Hongjoong wanted.

“Hello!” The door opened. Hongjoong had to have seen Seonghwa through the window. Oh no, he was wearing a huge jumper that swallowed him whole. It was so devastatingly cute. “Please, come in, leave your shoes by the door, I have guest slippers if you want. Do you want something to drink?”

Seonghwa had missed this. Hongjoong was so bubbly and cheery, a ray of sunlight warming Seonghwa to the core.

“Just a glass of water, please.” He didn’t want to cause too much fuss.

“Alright, I’ll get it. You can already go through to the living room, I’ve set up a backdrop. Just get comfortable, okay? It’ll show in the pictures.” Hongjoong scurried off in the direction of what was likely the kitchen while Seonghwa wandered through the hallway into the living room after taking off his shoes. 

Hongjoong’s flat matched him so well. It was decorated with random art pieces and framed photos, a bit cluttered, a bit messy, warm and wonderfully lived in.

“There you go.” Hongjoong showed up behind Seonghwa and pushed a glass into his hand. There was a slice of lemon in it, Hongjoong had gone the extra mile. He then stepped in front of Seonghwa, tilted his head from side to side and stared at Seonghwa’s face as if analyzing him.

Seonghwa didn’t dare to breathe, let alone drink his water.

“Seonghwa?” Hongjoong’s eyes still traced Seonghwa’s features and Seonghwa was glad that he didn’t have to meet Hongjoong’s gaze.

“Hm?”

“You’re very beautiful. Thank you for agreeing to be my model.”

“You…” Seonghwa’s mouth became dry. “You’re very beautiful too.”

“Me?” Hongjoong smiled and became even more beautiful. “I’m pretty, sure, but you? Have you ever seen yourself? You’re ethereal, Seonghwa.”

Seonghwa remembered the glass of water he was still clutching in his hand. He took a sip to help his tongue function and form words. “Thank you, I…”

Hongjoong’s smile widened when Seonghwa fumbled for words. “Cute. Now, did you bring some clothes like I asked?”

Merlin. Had Hongjoong just called Seonghwa cute? Had he really? Fuck. How to work a brain. “I… yeah… bag…”

Hongjoong pulled the bag from Seonghwa’s shoulder and after Seonghwa’s nod confirming that it was okay unzipped it to look through the clothes Seonghwa had brought. This gave Seonghwa the chance to catch his breath. 

“Oooh, this is perfect.” Hongjoong pulled a neatly folded white shirt out of the bag and straightened up the collar. “This won’t draw too much attention, we’re shooting portrait after all, but still make it more… you have very regal features, Seonghwa.”

Seonghwa swallowed. “Thank you.”

Hongjoong hummed approvingly. “Okay, put this on. Your trousers don’t matter, they won’t be in frame anyway. Can I put the tiniest bit of make-up on you? Not that you really need it but I want to make your eyes pop.”

“Uh… sure?”

“Perfect! I won’t look while you’re changing but if it makes you uncomfortable, the bathroom is over there. No judging.”

Seonghwa pondered for a moment. It made him a little shy but at the same time he had seen Hongjoong topless so many times, purely professionally of course, and Hongjoong didn’t remember it, but… why was he even thinking about this? It wasn’t like it mattered. Merlin. He grasped the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head without a second thought before slipping his arms into the sleeves of the shirt and buttoning it up. When he turned around he saw that true to his word Hongjoong had his head down and was fiddling with a camera.

Seonghwa cleared his throat. “Like this?”

Hongjoong’s head flew up. “Yeah. Now sit please, I’ll get my make-up bag.”

Seonghwa tentatively sat on the edge of the sofa while Hongjoong left the room. Why was he so damn _nervous_? For Merlin’s sake, it was just Hongjoong, Seonghwa knew him. Just because he was missing a few months of his memories didn’t mean he was a different person.

Hongjoong dropped the bag on the sofa cushion next to Seonghwa and got to work on Seonghwa’s face, telling him to close his eyes, to look up, to look down, and Seonghwa lost track. But as long as it didn’t feel like the brush was going to poke his eyes out it actually felt quite nice, especially when Hongjoong started to put _something_ in Seonghwa’s hair.

“Okay, all done. Wanna see?” Hongjoong held up a small mirror and Seonghwa had to admit that he looked good. Hongjoong had styled his hair out of his face, lined his eyes and put some smokey shadow around them. Under Seonghwa’s eyes sparkled one rhinestone on each side.

“That looks good!”

“Don’t sound so surprised!” Hongjoong pretended to be offended but Seonghwa saw the mirth sparkling in his eyes.

Seonghwa's toneless "ha ha" was rather weak. 

"Okay, let's get cracking. Sit on that chair and face slightly away from me please. I want to start with your three-quarter profile." 

Seonghwa sat wordlessly. 

"Nice. Stay right there, like that." 

Hongjoong adjusted the lighting and rearranged the plain canvas that acted as a backdrop. 

He then picked up his camera and started snapping pictures, giving directions for Seonghwa to look a certain direction, or soften his eyes, or relax his jaw every now and then, and Seonghwa tried even though he had no clue what he was doing. No expression felt any different from the previous one, but Hongjoong seemed happy with it so whatever. 

"Alright, I think I have everything. Thank you so much!" Hongjoong fiddled with his camera again. 

Seonghwa stood, shaking out his leg that had fallen asleep on the chair. 

"Can I treat you to lunch as a thank you?" Hongjoong looked up from where he was storing his camera in a bag. 

That meant his time with Hongjoong didn't have to end yet. Right? 

"Yes." As if right on cue Seonghwa's stomach rumbled. 

Hongjoong laughed. "Nice. Can't let my model go hungry." 

They went to a market just out of town where they got food at a stall that had the best Fish‘n’Chips in the country, at least according to Hongjoong. With the paper plates in hand they strolled over the market, looking at the displays and chatting while they ate their lunch. Hongjoong hadn’t changed one bit. He was still the man Seonghwa had fallen for, still bubbly and witty, still fiercely loyal to his friends, still protective and still a ray of sunshine. The clouds had cleared and the sun was shining but at this time of year it was still cold.

Hongjoong snapped a few pictures here and there, of market stalls, of trees, of a park bench, but mostly of Seonghwa. When Seonghwa stuffed a big piece of fish into his mouth, when he pointed to a stall ahead that he wanted to check out, when he looked up from a wooden bowl in his hands with a smile, when he was flicking through a book. And even though Hongjoong was taking these pictures, saying how he needed “candids for his portfolio”, Seonghwa couldn’t help it. It felt like a date. That feeling became even stronger when Hongjoong linked his arm with Seonghwa’s, claiming to be cold, his camera dangling from his neck.

“Thank you for today. I’ll send you all of the candids, you can of course veto any you don’t like and I won’t use them.” They sat in the tube, on their way back.

“You’re welcome.” Over the day Seonghwa hadn’t quite gained his confidence back, but at least he was comfortable with Hongjoong again. 

Hongjoong settled against him with a happy sigh, his head coming to rest on Seonghwa’s shoulder and Seonghwa froze. Okay, maybe he had been right. Maybe this was a date. Well, Seonghwa wouldn’t object to that. He slowly unlocked his limbs and rested one hand on Hongjoong’s knee. Hongjoong didn’t move. Apparently this was okay.

They fell into silence, but it was a comfortable silence. 

“This is my stop,” Hongjoong said quietly. “I’ll text you?”

“Yeah. See you?”

“See you soon.” Hongjoong got up and gifted Seonghwa one last sunny smile before stepping out onto the platform.

As soon as he was out of sight through the window Seonghwa sunk into himself. Oh Merlin. Had this been a date? It must have been. It was just missing the label. 

Seonghwa was brushing his teeth when the phone he had taken to carrying around with him vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and unlocked it, feeling slightly proud that he remembered Yeosang’s lesson. 

Hongjoong: [photos attached]

Hongjoong: here are the pics, still unedited tho

Hongjoong: theyll look polished up one theyre edited

Seonghwa: Thank you.

Seonghwa: They look good! You are talented, Hongjoong.

Hongjoong: thx :)

Hongjoong: ur a good model, so at least half of the credit is urs

Hongjoong: thx for today too, i had fun :D

Seonghwa: The Fish’n’Chips were really good, you were right about that recommendation!

Seonghwa: We should do that again some time if you’re up for it.

Hongjoong: yeah, sure!

Hongjoong: just text me when ur free, i wanna ask u sth

Seonghwa: What do you want to ask me?

Hongjoong: secret ;)

Seonghwa: I’m intrigued…

Hongjoong: hehe

Hongjoong: good night hwa

Seonghwa: Good night, Hongjoong. Sweet dreams!

Hongjoong: simple, i’ll just dream of u

Seonghwa dropped his phone and it clattered into the sink. He looked up to see himself in the mirror, his eyes wide and his toothbrush dangling from his foamy mouth.

Had… had Hongjoong really just said that? He picked the phone up and read the message again. There it was. Hongjoong had really said that. Oh Merlin.

“They employed me! I just signed the contract!” 

Seonghwa looked up from his book about muscle metabolism to see a beaming Hongjoong sit across from him, Yunho’s signature matcha latte in hand.

“Congratulations!” Seonghwa smiled. “You deserve it!”

Hongjoong grinned. “Thanks! At least fifty percent of the credit goes to you for being such a good model though.”

Seonghwa felt heat rise to his cheeks and looked back down at his book. “I didn’t really do much. I just sat there and looked in random directions.”

“And went to the market with me. Really though. My boss liked the pictures so much that she asked me if you would model an advertisement for the studio.”

Seonghwa looked up in surprise. “Wait, really?”

Hongjoong shrugged. “Yeah, if you want to add modelling to your CV. Of course you can say no, I told them that you’re actually a doctor and only modelled for me so I could get my portfolio done.”

“Ahm.” Seonghwa sat back and crossed his arms.

“You don’t have to decide now. Take time to think about it, maybe google the studio to see if you even want to be associated with them. But there’s something else I wanted to ask...” He started to fidget, playing with the edge of the table runner. 

“Ask away. I’m all ears.” Seonghwa marked his page and closed the book, giving Hongjoong his full attention. To be honest, he always did.

“It’s… of course you’re free to say no and nothing would change, but…. Would you go out with me? Like on a date?”

Seonghwa just stared at him, mouth open.

Hongjoong paled. “Sorry! Sorry, forget I said anything, why did I ask, I don’t even know if you like men! We can pretend this never happened, right?” He continued to ramble.

Seonghwa took a deep breath. This was better than what he had been hoping for. Holy shit, this was happening. “Hongjoong? First of all, I’m very, very gay and second, I would love to go on a date with you.”

That shut Hongjoong up and it was his turn to stare before he broke out into a wide smile. 

“Awesome. Sorry, I’m bad at asking people out.”

Seonghwa couldn’t help but mirror Hongjoong’s smile. “Don’t worry. Where and when?”

“Oh Jesus.” Hongjoong slapped his palm against his forehead. “I haven’t even thought about that yet. Didn’t think I’d get that far to be honest.”

Seonghwa chuckled. Hongjoong was so damn _adorable_. 

“Why wouldn’t I go out with you?”

“I don’t know. You could be straight, you could be emotionally unavailable, you could be too busy, or you could realize that you’re like five leagues above me?”

What the-?

“Hongjoong, I’m not five leagues above you! Why would you even think that?” 

“Seonghwa.” Hongjoong laid one hand on Seonghwa’s. “You are a doctor, saving lives every day, you are friendly enough to volunteer to model for a stranger, and if that wasn’t enough already, you are absolutely gorgeous.”

Seonghwa swallowed. He did _not_ know what to answer to that. 

“Good lord, did I really just say that? I can’t believe I just said that.” Hongjoong ran both hands through his hair and got up. “Be right back, I’ll just go die of embarrassment real quick.” He rushed out of the shop.

Seonghwa felt his cheeks flame.

“That was painful.” Jongho took Hongjoong’s abandoned chair. “Don’t mind him, he’s always been a disaster bi.”

“I… I don’t mind.” Yep, his blush wouldn’t get better any time soon.

“Oh god, you’re just as bad.” 

Seonghwa folded his arms on his book and buried his face in them. Jongho patted his shoulder. “You’ll be fine.”

Seonghwa just groaned.

  
  


Hongjoong: so that didnt quite go as planned

Hongjoong: sorry for running away i was embarrassed

Hongjoong: u still wanna go out with me?

Seonghwa: Don’t worry, it’s fine. And yes, I still want to go out with you.

Hongjoong: okay good

Hongjoong: i hereby promise to not run away on our date

Hongjoong: when r u free?

Seonghwa: In the evening pretty much every day. For during the day I’ll have to check my schedule.

Hongjoong: evening works for me

Hongjoong: there’s a little amusement park out of town 

Hongjoong: i thought that would be a good place

Seonghwa: Yeah, sounds good. How do we get there?

Hongjoong: do you have a car

Seonghwa didn’t have a car, he didn’t even know how to drive one. Considering apparition and his access to the floo network, combined with the London tube system, he had never bothered.

Seonghwa: No.

Hongjoong: k ill ask mingi if i can borrow his

Hongjoong: i has car!

Hongjoong: i can pick you up after work

Hongjoong: tomorrow?

Seonghwa: Tomorrow works for me.

Hongjoong: ill be there

Hongjoong: but where exactly

Well that was the problem. Seonghwa definitely couldn’t give Hongjoong the address of St. Mungo’s. But what other address could he give? So far he had evaded questions of where _exactly_ he worked because that was bound to go awry. He didn’t want to lie to Hongjoong.

Seonghwa: I’m very sorry about this, I can’t tell you where exactly I work because I’m sworn to secrecy. But how about we meet at your studio at 7?

Hongjoong: ooh mysterious

Hongjoong: k

Hongjoong: i wont pry

Hongjoong: just tell me that ur not doing anything illegal

Seonghwa: No! Oh no. No, it’s not illegal, don’t worry.

Hongjoong: k

Hongjoong: c u tmrw

**Author's Note:**

> This'll be interesting. I've been working on it on and off for quite a while and it's not finished yet but I need more motivation to finish it. So please, hold me accountable! I need it!  
> twt @ChanSeongGuk


End file.
